1850 Federal Census Taney County, Missouri (Transcriber's Notes) ************************************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwcensus.org/notices/ http://www.usgwcensus.org/ http://www.usgwcensus.org/cenfiles/ ************************************************************************** Abstracted by Barbara Logan (2002) from public records. Proofread by Daniel Quillen. Submitted by Barbara Logan and Daniel Quillen. Edited and formatted by Maggie Stewart. ************************************************************************** All above information must remain when copied or downloaded. ************************************************************************** NOTE: For more information on Taney County, Missouri, Please visit the Taney County, MOGenWeb page at http://taneymo.us/ ========================================================= ALSO visit the MOGenWeb archives at http://www.usgwarchives.net/mo/mofiles.htm ************************************************************************** This Census was transcribed by Barbara Logan during the summer of 2000 and completed on September 30, 2000. To do this transcription I used TIFF images of the 1850 Taney County, Missouri Census record pages which I purchased on CD-ROM from AllCensus.Com. Most of the census was in great condition, but there were a few spots that were unreadable due to damage on the original document. I enhanced the image contrast as best I could and feel I did a pretty good job at transcribing the information. You should use this transcription as reference material only. Always check the actual census images or microfilm to be sure there are no errors in any transcription. My Notes About This Census: This Census covers the region of Missouri which at the time included parts of current Christian, Douglas and Stone Counties, as well as Taney County. It includes the Townships of Swan, Newton, James, Flat, Washington, Cass, Linn, Jasper, Marion, Prairie, Big Creek, Benton and Campbell. On the last four pages the Township name was Unreadable. Also, it is not clear, in some cases, where one township ended and the next began. Sometimes a family starts on one page and continues to another and those two pages may have different townships listed. This transcription is a faithful reproduction of the original. I spelled words exactly as they appear on the Census, which you will mostly notice in the "Place of Birth" column. Some examples are Indiania, Alabamia and Pensylvania. In some places the Surname may be spelled differently for members of the same Family. Most of the First Names in the Census have been recorded as initials. I do not know why they did it that way. There are a few First names listed, but very few. I have used an asterisk (*) to show unreadable or undecipherable letters in the Surname and First Name columns. There were 4,272 Free Inhabitants in 678 Dwellings, which are recorded as 679 Families on 51 pages of 84 persons each. (Front and back of pages makes it 102 pages of 42 persons each.) A couple of lines have been left totally Blank. The enumerator noted at the end of the census, "Add 1 dwelling for 616 numbered twice - makes 680 dwellings," but the number 18 was skipped entirely, as was Dwelling number152. There are two of number 616 so the number is actually 678 Dwellings. Also note that Dwellings numbered 442 through 470 were recorded on the wrong pages. Page 372 was apparently skipped, then filled in after page 373. The correct order to read those pages would be 371B, 373A, 373B, 372A, 372B, 374A. The only Dwelling that lists two Families is number 149, although in several dwellings it is clear that large extended families (or more than one family) lives there. There is use of ditto marks (") to indicate a person's Color as being white on the first few pages. But this census is actually an enumeration of Free Inhabitants, so they should all be "white." There was a separate Slave Census for Taney County, Missouri in 1850. In the rest of the census it appears that a "W" has been used in the Color column to indicate a "Widow" or "Widower." Some are elderly and living with (we might guess) other family members. Some are the head of a household and some have children. There is sometimes a notation that children of the same age are Twins. This enumeration was taken by James T. Sanders, Deputy Marshall, between August 20, 1850 and November 5, 1850. His name is recorded as J. T. Sanders, Jas. T. Sanders and James T. Sanders on various pages. His family is the last one he entered into the census record. The vast majority of the males aged 15 and over list their Occupation as Farmer. Other occupations listed include Black Smith, Carpenter, Cabinet Maker, Wagon Maker, Laborer, Inn Helper, Merchant, Grocery Merchant, Merchant's Clerk, Doctor, Lawyer, Clerk of Court, Deputy Marshall, Deputy Sheriff, Sheriff, Preacher, Gun Smith, Boatsman, Saddler, Tanner, Parson, Cooper, School Teacher and Wagon Maker. One is even listed as a Loafer! It appears there were at least three or four people doing the actual writing in this census, and sometimes the handwriting can be pretty confusing. The writing of some letters is sometimes very similar to other letters, depending on the writer, so you might find some errors in my transcribing of them. Due to these variations in handwriting, you should read through the entire index of the census, just to be sure that a name you are looking for isn't transcribed incorrectly. And PLEASE, if you believe something is incorrectly transcribed, send me an E Mail and let me know! Thank you! Barbara Logan