Terry's TMG Tips

Terry's Census Tag
for 1790 to 1840 U.S. Census

This page created 12 Dec 2011

Applies to Version 8 & 9

This article describes the Census Tag that I have developed for the 1790 to 1840 U.S. census - the years in which only the head of the household was named. I expect the techniques could be adapted to any other census that provides counts of household members by group rather than listing each member by name.

My article on Recording Census Information describes my approach to recording census information, which is aligned with the Census tag I describe here, and some important caveats about its application. Two companion articles describe my Census tag for 1850 and later, and a simplified version some users may prefer.

The U.S. Census for 1790 through 1840 produce special issues because only the head of the household is named, with others simply counted by sex, age bracket, and free or slave. Thus one cannot be sure who was actually in the household, other than the named head. But in many cases one can make an informed assumption, and my method allows recording those conclusions.

Some users get all fussy about including detailed warnings for their readers that we really don't know who the other members are, and are just guessing. I use a simpler format that I think adequately conveys the uncertainty, but users will have to decide for themselves how clear they feel they need to be on this point.

What It Does

The Census Tag described below records and provides narrative output with the following information:

For the head of household:

• Census title, e.g. "1840 Federal Census"
• The municipality, county and state of residence, to the extent provided by the record
• Lists the number of persons in the household by sex and age bracket, and identifies them as spouse or children of the head of household to the extent information from other sources can provide a basis for that identification

For others believed to have been counted as members of the household:

• Census title, e.g. "1840 Federal Census"
• Municipality, county and state of residence
• Name of head of household
• Relationship to head of household

This provides as complete picture as possible of the household in the narratives about the head of household, as well as key information in the narratives about other members. This works well in narrative output to Second Site where each person's narrative stands on it's own, but at the price of some repetition in Journal narratives when the whole family may be listed together.

Dealing with Relationships Between Household Members

With members of the household not listed by name, one can only compare the numbers of males and females by age brackets with the known or estimated ages of the spouse, ages and marital status of children, and any others who might have been present in the household. I find in many cases at least some of the household members can be identified with reasonable assurance.

There is a virtually endless list of possible relationships of members of the household have to the head of household – daughters-in-law, sons-in-law, with or without their children, mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters, grandchildren with or without their parents, uncles, aunts, and many more. But as a practical matter, I find that I can rarely make a sound judgment about about any but the spouse and children, and occasionally, an aging parent. When there is no reasonable basis for making an identification I declare them "unknown" or on rare occasions, include a guess as "possibly..."

Dealing with Groups Household Members by Age and Sex

The Tag deals automatically with:

• Having one or more than one person in each age/sex group.
• Identifying each unnamed person as the spouse, son or daughter.

This is done with the use of Roles. Probable household members are assigned Roles which reflect a combination of the believed relationship to the head of household and the age/sex bracket, for example:

• wife 25-35
• son under 5
• daughter 5-10

Of course the actual age brackets differ by census years, as the various censuses used different brackets. Note that one could be more politically correct and call the "wife" Role "spouse." But I've never seen a female head of household in this period where I believed her husband was present in the household. And doing so requires creating both male and female sentences for this Role, which seems to me like a waste of effort, so I don't recommend it.

In order to produce the correct wording for the various members of the household the system must account for any given sex/age bracket containing only one or more than one person. I do this with "pseudo-plural" roles like these:

• wifes 25-35
• sons under 5
• daughters 5-1

Note that this is not necessarily a real plural - that is, "wifes" does not mean we think there were really two wives. Rather, it means there are 2 or more people in that age/sex bracket, one of which is being identified as the wife. (I like the "incorrect" spelling "wifes" as a reminder that this doesn't really mean there were two wives.) Similarly, the role for "sons" may be used when only one son has been identified, with the others in that bracket not identified ("unknown"). Choosing the plural role rather than the non-plural one causes wording like "...was probably one of the two females age 25 to 30..." instead of the wording "Was probably the female age 25 to 30..." in the output. The details below may make this clearer.

Sentence Structures for 1800

Below are the Roles and corresponding Sentence Structures I use for the 1800 Census Tag. Those for 1790 and 1810 through 1840 are similar, but have somewhat different roles to accommodate the different age brackets used in those years, as listed at the end of this article.

This system requires custom Sentences for the standard Principal and Witness Roles, and the creation of the custom Roles listed below. If you are not familiar with modifying Sentence Structures, you may find my article on Modifying Tag Sentence Structures helpful. If you are not familiar with using Roles, my Tutorial on Creating and Applying Roles may be helpful.

Role used for the head of household:

Roles use for wife of the head of household:

Roles used for children of the head of household:

Roles used for other members of household:

Entering Data in the Census Tag

• Enter the head of household as Principal.

• Enter the location, with as much detail as is available, in the Place fields.

• If the wife can be identified as probably being one of the females listed, enter her as a Witness, and assign the appropriate "wife" or 'wifes" role.

• If any children can be identified as probably being in the household, enter them as Witnesses, and assign the appropriate "son" "sons" "daughter" or "daughters" role.

• When the wife or child is listed in the census as one of two or more people in the same age/sex bracket, enter the number of people in that bracket in segment 1 of the Witness Memo for that person.

• In the rare case any other person can be identified as in the household, enter that person as a Witness, and assign the role of "Witness" or "Witnesses." Enter the age bracket, e.g. "age 10 to 15" in the first segment of the Witness Memo. If the "Witnesses" role is used, enter the number of people in that age bracket in the first segment and the age bracket in the Second. Optionally, enter the relationship of the person to the head of household in the next segment, and any comments in the last.

• The main Memo field is the primary tool for recording the relationships for the list of household members for the head of household narratives. See the following section for details.

Creating the Head of Household Narrative

The tag Memo field is used to construct the key part of the narrative for the head of household - both the recorded makeup of the household, and who we believe the persons counted actually were. Here is an example of what such a memo would be:

with a household consisting of two males under age 10 (probably sons [RF:sons under 10]), one between 16 and 25 (unknown), and one over 45 (himself); and two females under 10 (daughters [RF:daughters under 10]), three between 10 and 15 (daughters [RF:daughters 10-15]), one between 16 and 25 (daughter [RF:daughter 16-25]), and one over 45 (his wife [RF:wife over 45])

Note that the entry reports the number of people listed in each age/sex bracket, and then shows who we believe the people in that bracket to be. Following each bracket, in parenthesis, is the person or persons we believe to have been enumerated, or the word "unknown" if we don't know.

The entry above would produce the following output for the head of household:

It would be possible to type the names into the memo instead of using the name Variables you see here. I use the Variables for four reasons: 1) it avoids mistakes typing the name, 2) the names automatically change if I later change the names of the persons involved, 3) when I output my data to a website using Second Site, each name becomes a link allowing the reader to jump to that person's entry, and 4) when there is more than one person with the Role, as with the children in this example, a single Variable produces the entire list of all of them.

Should there be anything else of interest in the census, for example the presence of slaves in the household, I add that to the Memo at the end of the text listing the household members.

Roles Needed for Each Year

The age brackets used in the census differed from year to year. Some of the later years had a large number of brackets, creating the theoretical possibility of a huge number of Roles. But in practice, I have found that many of the possible cases do not actually occur. The list below shows those I have found sufficient, in addition to the roles for Principal and the all-purpose Witness and Witnesses Roles. Should a bracket not included be needed, that one role can easily be added without the need to add a complete set.

Downloading this Tag Type

You can modify your existing Census Tag Types or create custom ones by copying the Roles and Sentences from this page, editing them as you prefer. Or, you can download and install a copy of my Tag Types using the Tag Type Import function.

This download contains a set of Tag Types, one for each census year. I find separate Tag Types are needed for each census year because are significant differences in Roles needed for each year.

If you choose to download you can import in either of two ways:

• Replace your existing Census Tag Types – assuming you have created your own set with a different Tag Type for each year, and use the same names I do (Cens1790, Cens1800, etc.). Doing so will remove any Roles not present in my Census Tag Types. If you have actually assigned any of those Roles to people in your Data Set, you cannot use this method.

• Add as an additional Census Tag Types – the only alternative if you do not have separate Tag Types for each census year using the same names I use.

I recommend that you add them as additional Tag Types, even if you already have separate ones for each year. Doing so will avoid problems with your existing Census Tags if you don't plan to convert them to the new system immediately.

If you want to proceed with the download and import process:

1. Down load my custom Tag Type file here: Terry's 1790-1840 Tag Types

   The file formats used for exporting and importing Tag Types was changed with TMG version 8.05. This import can only be used with that version or later. If you are using version 8.04 or earlier you should install the free upgrade.

2. You have a choice about where to save the file. You can save it in an easy-to-find location, such as on your desktop, and then locate it when you import it in Step 3 below. Or, you can save it in your TMG "Export" folder, which is were TMG first looks for it. I recommend that location if you might want to import the Tag Types again into different Projects. The default location of the Export folder is shown below, but it may differ on your system if you have customized your file locations:

3. Open TMG, then use the Tools > Tag Types menu command to open the Tag Types screen. On that screen, click the Import Button, and on the Import screen that opens select the "terry's census tags 1790-1840.xtt" file. If you have saved it someplace other than the Export folder, you will have to navigate to that location to locate it. Click the Open button, and the Import Tag Type screen opens:

In that screen, you may choose to either:

• Replace your existing Census Tag Types – if you have separate Tag Types for each census year with the same names I use. To do that, select the first option, "Import and overwrite if the tag type already exists." Click the OK button. If successful, you will get a confirmation message that the new Tag Type has been imported. If you have used any Roles not included in my custom Tag Types, you will receive a message that the Tag Type was not imported. You can then either create the new Roles manually, or use the alternate method below (recommended).

• Add as an additional Census Tag Types – recommended. To do that, select the second option, "Import and don't overwrite." If you have Tag Types with the same names, the imported Tag Type will be numeric suffix unless you check the "Add a Prefix" box below and enter a prefix, which will be applied to the Tag Type name. Click the OK button and you should get a confirmation message that the new Tag Type has been imported.

For further details on exporting and importing Tag Types, see my article Exporting and Importing Tag Types.

Copyright 2000- by Terry Reigel