Censuses Point the Way

By Connie Lenzen

A column written for the 21 August 2003 issue of the Vancouver Columbian.

Each week I receive e-mails from Columbian readers who ask for guidance. Here's one that illustrates the principle that we need to look at and evaluate records that were created around an ancestor.

Our reader says, "I am doing some research on people whom our family believes were born in Salem, Oregon in 1842. Specifically John P. Anderson, son of James Anderson and Eleanor Simpson. I've read enough lists and books to make my head foggy. Any help would be greatly appreciated."

The first place to begin is with censuses. The 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, etc. censuses give the names of every individual in a household, their ages, and birth states.

HeritageQuestOnline, a database that many libraries offer their patrons, has indexes to most of these years and census images for all of the years.

The 1860 Marion County, Oregon census index shows a J. P. Anderson. When we go to the census image, we find a J. P. Anderson, age 25, who was born in Missouri. There is a household with J. and E. Anderson nearby (perhaps James and Eleanor Anderson), and there are a couple of Simpson families as neighbors.

On the 1860 census, Mr. Anderson's first name is not given, illustrating that we need to be flexible about spelling. In this particular census year, the Oregon census enumerator saved time by just using initials.

Family tradition says that John P. Anderson was born in Salem in 1842. The J. P. Anderson on the census was not born in Oregon. That's not out of line because Oregon's population in the 1840s was extremely small. In 1842, Dr. Elijah White, the first United States Indian Agent for Oregon, took a census of the population south of the Columbia River. He found 818 individuals: 250 adult males, 171 adult females, and 397 children. This population consisted of Canadians who were retired Hudson Bay employees, Indians, and some Americans. James Anderson was not one of them.

The estimated birth year from the 1860 census for Anderson is 1845, not 1842. We don't know who gave the birth information to the census taker. It could have been a neighbor who was just guessing.

Our reader should look at all of the censuses where John P. Anderson appears and evaluate the information for clues as to the next step in the research. For instance, the location is the key to finding cemetery records and courthouse records like deeds and probates.

How to do Oregon Research

Connie Lenzen, CG