Come take a stroll through Warren, Rhode Island in 1774:
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:1774_Rhode_Island_Census_Project:_Warren
In that year there was a fairly complete census of Rhode Island. The 1774 Rhode Island Census Project aims to:
- locate and/or create and connect profiles for all heads-of-household named in the census, and
- create "linked census" pages for each town. A linked census is a standard census transcription except that each named person is linked to their profile.
The page for Warren has just been completed. The town of Barrington was completed in January 2019:
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:1774_Rhode_Island_Census_Project:_Barrington
You might notice they are not complete -- there are a few names in red that are still unidentified as people that can be profiled and connected to the main tree. So if you like some tough puzzles, take a crack at those red names!
Why might you care? Aside from providing an uniquely detailed of the townsfolk on the verge of the Revolutionary War, this can tie in with other projects and interest. There are probably a bunch of categories that can be pretty well be completed using a linked census, for instance
- a Revolutionary War service unit,
- a cemetery category
- the Rhode Island part of a one-name study
- a category for a certain church congregation
- a category for people of color or enslaved people living in colonial New England
Concerning the latter -- the census was unusually detailed in it's identification of people of color, at least compared with censuses even decades later. For people of color it used classifications "Indian" and "black" and within those categories distinguishing by sex and age (above or below 16). It did not identify whether people were free or enslaved, and there is still little in the linked census to point towards the specific identities of people of color. Only one of the heads of household at Warren was classified as non-white, and only heads-of-household were named. A few of the linked profiles identify enslaved people who were named in wills, but a name in a will is not much to go on. However, if you are interested in the genealogy of enslaved people from colonial New England, there is something I can point to that might prove fruitful:
The Warren Middle Passage Project, "an all-volunteer group researching the history of the slave trade and enslavement in Warren, Rhode Island." Their site has information about known residents of Warren enslaved during colonial times that perhaps could be combined with the census information to glean some new insight.
Other ideas for where to take this -- it would be amazing to push forward to the 1777 military census of Rhode Island, then the 1782 census of Rhode Island, and finally to the 1790 census! Or make your own linked census. But a warning -- don't go too big! It's a lot of work putting these together! But there are lots of other ancient censuses or reasonable substitutes that are reasonably small in size and could make an amazing addition to our favorite website.
Over the next 1-2 years I will be working on the town of Bristol. When it is finished, that will complete the entirety of Bristol County, one of the five Rhode Island counties.
There are now 675 of the 9900 or so heads-of-household in all of Rhode Island hooked up with a 1774 census category -- that's closing on 7% ! So if you know of some Revolutionary War period Rhode Island profiles -- from anywhere in Rhode Island -- a simple contribution would be just to throw the
[[Category: 1774 Census of Rhode Island]]
box at the top of the profile so the corresponding profile can be analyzed and identified as a particular household.
