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Blazing New Trails: Reconstruction of the 1890 Census
[Excerpt]... The 1890 federal population schedules were a robust census in the amount of information the enumerators were instructed to collect as they conducted their visitations throughout the country. And the 1880s and 1890s were such significant periods of growth and change in the United States that family and social historians, academicians, and demographers would have benefited from the richness and quantity of data collected. Unfortunately, a portion of the 1890 census was damaged by fire in the basement of the Commerce Building in 1921. The remaining records, badly damaged by water used to extinguish the fire, were stored for a number of years. But, damaged beyond repair, the records were ultimately destroyed by government order...
1890 Census Substitutes
[Excerpt]... The 1890 census materials were stored at the Commerce Building in Washington, D.C. In January of 1921, tragedy struck when a fire at the Commerce Building and the resultant water destroyed 99% of these census records. The fragments of the Population Schedules that survived included only about 6,000 individuals of a total of almost 63 million U.S. inhabitants counted. A special enumeration of Union veterans and widows had been compiled on Veterans Schedules forms. Of these, sixteen states' schedules were completely lost and about half of the schedules for Kentucky perished...
Ancestry.com to Launch Online Substitute for 1890 Census
[Excerpt]... Ancestry.com is undertaking a historically-significant project to reconstruct the immense amount of information lost when a 1921 fire in the basement of the Commerce Building in Washington, D.C. destroyed nearly all of the 1890 census. Part of the MyFamily.com, Inc. network of sites, Ancestry.com ( http://www.ancestry.com ) is using numerous sources to create an online substitute census with information to which hundreds of millions of Americans can trace their roots. More than 20 million records have been identified for inclusion in the census substitute and additions will be made regularly as records become available for posting...
Letter to the Editor: 1890 Census Reconstruction
[Excerpt]... There is a monograph about the 1890 census on the U.S. National Archives site that is very interesting. I haven't read it for a while but in a nutshell it says that the records were not destroyed by the fire, they were just water damaged. They were piled in a hallway for several years and ignored. A lower-level bureaucrat petitioned to destroy the records and was allowed to because no one cared at that time and his order was signed with a bunch of others. I think he just wanted the hallway cleaned up...
On the Frontier: Ancestry's 1890 Census Substitute
[Excerpt]... The year 1890 is remembered for many things--the first moving picture show in New York, the first steel-framed structure built in the United States, and the first electric trolley car in Chicago. It was also the decade in which Frederick Jackson Turner's thesis "The Frontier in American History," declared the frontier of America as closed. No one would have ever suspected that the 1890 Federal Census created a new frontier. With the destruction of the 1890 Census in the Commerce Building fire of 1921, this population schedule would one day become uncharted territory for genealogists and historians alike....
Philadelphia City Directory, 1890
[Excerpt]... In 1890, the metropolitan area of Philadelphia boasted a population of over 1 million. This city directory, originally published in 1891 and now taken from microfilm, is an index to the residents of this important U.S. city. With almost a quarter of a million persons, this database includes names, occupations, and addresses for the residents of the city proper. For the researcher of Philadelphian ancestors this can be an extremely valuable collection, especially if those ancestors were immigrants who remained in the city after their arrival in the United States...
New York City Police Census, 1890
[Excerpt]... Following the federal census of 1890, officials of New York City thought federal enumerators had failed to give a true account of city residents. As a result, between September 19th and October 14th of that year, an enumeration of the 24 assembly districts of New York County was taken by policemen of the city. This census produced 1,008 books and 13 percent more residents than the federal enumeration. Of those 1,008 books, only 894 are still available. This updated version of a previously posted database is an index to nine additional books, for a total of 26 police census books (58-61, 953-966, 969, 971-972, 977, 980, 982-983, 990), and adds the names of more than 5,000 people. Information provided includes each resident's name, gender, and age. The book and page number from the original is also given with each entry. Abbreviations in the age column are "M" for months, "W" for weeks, and "D" for days....
New York City Directory, 1890
[Excerpt]... With a population approaching nearly 1.5 million, New York City was the largest metropolitan area in the United States as the 19th Century ended. In 1890, the city limits included areas of Bronx, Kings, and Queens counties. This database is a directory of city residents in that year and includes the names of over 384,000 persons. Along with the name of resident (which is displayed surname first) is their occupation, business address and home address (preceded by a lowercase h). For those seeking ancestors who were residents of New York City this database can be a helpful tool...
Louisville, Kentucky Directories, 1890
[Excerpt]... Home to an estimated 160,000 people in 1890, Louisville is located along the Ohio River in Jefferson County, Kentucky. This database is a transcription of a city directory originally published in 1890. In addition to providing the resident's name, it provides information regarding their address and occupation. This collection includes the names of over 92,000 people, mostly heads of households. For those seeking ancestors from Kentucky, this can be an informative database...
Waco, Texas Directory, 1890
[Excerpt]... Located in central Texas,Waco is the county seat of McLennan County.This database is a transcription of a city directory originally published in 1890. In addition to providing the resident's name, it provides their address and occupational information. It includes the names of over 20,000 people, mostly heads of households. For the researcher of ancestors from central Texas, this can be an extremely valuable collection...
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