1880 U. S. Federal Census

By Township and Enumeration District (ED)

These are the columns that appear in this transcription:

Data Location Identification:
Sheet – Stamped number on upper right side of the front sides of the sheets of paper plus the alphabetical letter above that.  Back sides of the sheets only show the alphabetical letter on them.  Numbered sequentially throughout the whole State of Illinois microfilm.
Page – First item on the microfilmed page, upper left.  Each township begins with page 1, or one enumerator renumbered each day he worked.
Line – Line number on the page – between 1 and 50

In cities:
Column – Name of street
Column – House number

Column 1 – Dwelling house numbered in order of visitation
Column 2 – Families numbered in order of visitation

Personal Descriptions:
Column 3 – The name of each person whose place of abode on 1 Jun 1880 was in this family.
Column 4 – Color – W=White, B=Black, Mu=Mulatto, C=Chinese, I=Indian.
Column 5 – Sex – M=Male, F=Female
Column 6 – Age last birthday prior to 1 Jun 1880.  If under 1 year, give age in fractions, thus 11/12.
Column 7 – If born within the Census year, give the month.
Column 8 – Relationship of each person to the head of this family – whether wife, son, daughter, servant, boarder, or other.

Civil Condition:
Column 9 – Single
Column 10 – Married
Column 11 – Widowed.  D=Divorced
Column 12 – Married within the Census Year

Occupation
Column 13 – Profession, Occupation or Trade of each person, male or female.
Column 14 – Number of months this person has been unemployed during the Census year.

Health
Column 15 – Is this person (on the day of the Enumerator’s visit) sick or temporarily disabled so as to attend to normal business and duties?  If so, what is the sickness or disability?
Column 16 – Blind
Column 17 – Deaf and Dumb
Column 18 - Idiotic
Column 19 – Insane
Column 20 – Maimed, crippled, bedridden or otherwise disabled.

Education
Column 21 – Attended school within the current year.
Column 22 – Cannot read.
Column 23 – Cannot write

Nativity
Column 24 – Place of Birth of this person, naming State or Territory of United States, or the country if of foreign birth.
Column 25 – Place of Birth of the father of this person, naming State or Territory of United States, or the country if of foreign birth.
Column 26 – Place of Birth of the mother of this person, naming State or Territory of United States, or the country if of foreign birth.

Note A – The Census Year begins 1 Jun 1879 and ends May 31 1880.
Note B – All persons will be included in the enumeration who were living 1 Jun 1880.  No others will.  Children who were born since 1 Jun 1880 will be omitted.  Members of Families who have died since 1 Jun 1880 will be included.
Note C – Questions number 18, 14, 11 and 28 are not to be asked in respect of children under 10 years of age.
Note D – In making entries in questions 9, 10, 11, 12, 16 to 23, an affirmative mark only will be used, thus 1, except in the cases of divorced persons, Column 11, when “D” will be used.
Note E – Question #12 will only be asked in cases when an affirmative answer has been given in questions #10 or to question #11.
Note F – Question #14 will only be asked in cases when a gainful occupation has been reported in column #13.
Note G – In column 7, an abbreviation for the name of the month may be used, as Jan, Dec and Jun.

Overall, the two biggest differences between the 1880 census format and other years’ formats appears to be the blank spaces for the heads of households instead of stating that they are the heads.  And calling all of the people that work for you and live with you “servant” – this includes at least the household servants, laborers, farm hands, store clerks, etc. – just look at the profession column for further definition.  

Things still unknown:  Is there a difference between Farming and Farmer – is one primary owner and one secondary?  Why do some places of birth have parenthesis around them – was the responder not positive?  

Strikeovers, when the Enumerator wrote over a previous entry, making it illegible, are marked as “unclear”.  If old, non-transparent scotch tape was used, it’s also “unclear”.  As always, these were transcribed as the enumerator wrote/spelled.

The Jesus Christ of Latter Days Saints’ Family History Centers has the entire US census indexed and online free.
You can also access this database at any of their Family History Centers (FHS).  Most of the FHCs also have free access to all of Ancestry.com for-a-fee data bases.  Several companies offer CDs for sale.  Many libraries and the State library have microfilmed copies that can be borrowed through their system.

Our transcriptions do not agree in all cases with the computer-assisted transcribing by FHC’s and Ancestry.com.  We’d like to think that we are a dab more familiar with the surnames than the computers.  If anyone has a question/comment about these transcriptions, or would like to help transcribe, please Contact Us.  

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