Page numbering is an extremely easy, yet controversial system. In all censuses 1830 and after, the enumerators were given standard printed forms and a binder into which the blank pages were inserted. After working his district the enumerator would meet with the supervisor for page turn over. Remember these pages were printed on both sides.

In several censues, additional copies were made of the pages that were used by the enumerators. these were used as State copies. Back to the 1790,1800 & 1810 censuses, the ones that are semi alphabetical lists are the second generation copies where they were copied from the field copies. Many of these originals were kept by the District Courts who were responsible for the Census before the Census Bureau was established. Another copy was provided to the state.In the later part of the 19th century, the courts were told to forward these retained copies to NARA. It is a good bet that if someone were to know the Federal District Court System they could find many of the missing copies of the early censuses.

Back to the process of numbering the pages. The rubber stamped numbers we use were added years later. However consider the completed enumeration as a book with the writting on both sides of the paper. The rubber stamp was always placed on the right hand side of the open book. That sheet is ALWAYS the B SHEET. The facing, unnumbered sheet is the A sheet. The first page of a district or county is always a B sheet. there is no A sheet for that first numbered page.

Now let's look at the censuses individually.

1790 - Very limited survival of the originals. There is an index published in 1908 by the census Bureau. That list is typed. There were printed sheets only in Mass. Most states just have plain sheets of varying sizes. Most of these have only 1 number and no line items shown.

1800 - 13 "states" including DC survive. again not printed. Most have stamped number and at least 1 hand written number. Some of these have multiple columns on a page. I generally ientify them as L, R or C ie Left, Right or Center. I have never seen more than 3 columns on a page.

1810 - 16 States survive. Some states provided printed forms ie SC. In some cases two sheets have been taped together, each with their numbers handwritten on them. The 2 sheets were then given 1 stamped number. The example I am looking at has 634 on the top half, 675 on the bottom half and 263 rubber stamped on the whole. The preceding page has 678 and 631 handwritten in large numbers.Where the other had a rubber stamp this one has written in small numbers 262A

1820 - 23 states survive. Most appear to have been on prelined forms, but still not the same in all states. The page numbers are all over the form. Look for the stamped number in the lower right hand side. Some had as many as 6 number written on, several were lined out.

1830 - At last some uniformity as to the sheets used. 29 state survive. 1830 and 1840 are unique in that it takes 2 sheets to make a page. The left hand side has the free Whiteschedules. The right side has Slaves, Free Colored, totals and such individual information as how many by color are deaf, deaf & dumb, blind or aliens. For a census to be completely transcribed both sides of the form must be transcribed. We do not engage in selective transcription. Perhaps here is a good place to tell you that you can get copies of blank census forms by going to http://www.ancestry.com/save/charts/census.htm No subscription is required.

1840 - Much like the 1830, but as always there is more information to be transcribed. On the back side or the "A"of the census form is data such as How many people are engaged in professions or occupations by categories such as Agriculture, Mining, Commewrce, Manufacture and trade, Navigation of the Oceans, Navigation of rivers, lakes and canals, and learned professions. There was a place for a census of Revolutionary war pensioners, and much more room for educational facilities. Left out were free blacks. They were to be enumeratedas free people, finally. Stamped numbers are in the upper right corner of the B page. Both pages required for a completed transcription. Generally very few handwritten numbers are present.

1850 - The First Modern Census. ALL People were individually listed. All but slaves by their names. The slaves were identified by age color, B or M and sex. Not necessary to do a slave transcription to have the transcription done. This is because the slave schedule was published seperately from the Free schedule. The stamped number is in the upper right corner of the "B" sheet. Handwritten sometimes on both sheets other times only on the B sheet but each numbered seperately.

1860 - Almost identical to the 1850 census. The one change is that there is a space in the corner nearest the binding for the page number. These always go up 1 sheet number for each side, while the stamped still has B and A numbers.

1870 - If you are like me you will learn to dislike the 1870 census. Unfortunately, the census bureau had only 5 years to plan for this census rather than the normal 10 years. Why? everyone was engaged for 4+ years with the civil war. The "Black Republicans" were engaing in their reparations for the fault in starting the Civil War. Districts were very poorly laid out. Sometimes the districts were split down the middle of the street. Sometimes people were in no district or were in two seperate districts. Numbering is sporatic. I have seen districts where pages were numbered with suffixes A, B, C & D. Just do the best you can with this census. If you have specific questions feel free to contact me.

1880 - The population was booming. Immigration was very high. This was the start of European immigration including southern Europe. We finally have the enumeration districts. Usually these were set up so that the populatiom was close to 2000 people per district. Less extraneous data was collected. Highly usuable data such as relationship to the head of household was collected. For the first time birthplace of oparents was requested. Page numbers fairly uniformly in upper right corner of the B page.

1890 - Forget it. There are less than 10,000 enumerations still existing

1900, 1910, 1920 & 1930 - Really modern Censuses. A & B printed on the forms. They do not mean the same. The sheet with the A is Sheet A, but page B. This is the right side of the open book. That is the page with the rubber stamp with the page number. Thus the page and sheet number are located close together. However page 254B is sheet 1A. and 255A is 1B.

Earnie Breeding