Abstract

This dataset includes all individuals from the 1860 US census.

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Documentation

This dataset was developed through a collaboration between the Minnesota Population Center and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The data contain demographic variables, economic variables, migration variables and race variables. Unlike more recent census datasets, pre-1900 census datasets only contain individual level characteristics and no household or family characteristics, but household and family identifiers do exist.

The official enumeration day of the 1860 census was 1 June 1860. The main goal of an early census like the 1860 U.S. census was to allow Congress to determine the collection of taxes and the appropriation of seats in the House of Representatives. Each district was assigned a U.S. Marshall who organized other marshals to administer the census. These enumerators visited households and recorder names of every person, along with their age, sex, color, profession, occupation, value of real estate, place of birth, parental foreign birth, marriage, literacy, and whether deaf, dumb, blind, insane or “idiotic”.

Sources: Szucs, L.D. and Hargreaves Luebking, S. (1997). Research in Census Records, The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy. Ancestry Incorporated, Salt Lake City, UT Dollarhide, W.(2000). The Census Book: A Genealogist’s Guide to Federal Census Facts, Schedules and Indexes. Heritage Quest, Bountiful, UT