Can You Help the USBH 1880 Census Project?

Question

In order to create more connection points across the entire USA and to systematically complete document sets, the US Black Heritage Project has started creating profiles for every Black American who was enumerated on the 1880 census. Since there are almost 6.6 million people to document, we can only do this with help from all of WikiTree!

(Can you already see those 6.6 million profiles? It's a beautiful vision)

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• Click the answer button below and tell us you will be participating.
• Go to the USBH 1880 Project index of states and find a state you would like to work on. Smaller states link straight to their spreadsheets. Larger states link to their own 1880 Project space page with links to county spreadsheets. 
• Go to the Google spreadsheet and read the directions on tab 1 on how to proceed. 
• Put your Wiki-ID in Column A next to the first person whose family you will be creating profiles for. 
• After you create the profile, add the new Wiki-ID in Column B. 
• Please complete the entire family for each household, including unrelated people before moving to the next person. We want a profile for everyone. We are only specifically creating profiles for Black members of the household, but you are welcome to enumerate the entire household, regardless of race, as you wish. 
• When you create a profile for an unrelated person who has no family attached, please add the category [[Category: US Black Heritage Project, Family Tree Size One]]. We have regular sprints to connect people in this category to their family.
• Please try to find at least one additional source to assure more accurate information, to confirm they should have the {{African-American Sticker}}, and to find last names at birth for the adult women. If you can't find any other sources, please go ahead and create the profile based on this census alone.
• Add a location category based on the 1880 census. Some of the locations are tricky based on time period, so if the category doesn't exist, please ask in g2g for help. 
• US Census records are wonderful because they almost always give approximate birth year and the state where they were born. Birth locations are very important to our work. 
• You can orphan the profiles after you've finished if you wish.

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Important! We can only create new spreadsheets and tabs so fast, which means you might finish before we can create the next one. Please be patient with us. If you finish a county or location section, let us know so we can create the next one. 

If you like extracting data and creating spreadsheets, we desperately need your help! Contact Christy Melick or Me for more info. 

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A HUGE THANK YOU TO CHRISTY MELICK FOR ALL HER WORK ON SETTING UP THIS PROJECT!

Comments

Nancy, you might also find Cesare as a family name.

Regards

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I can work on a few families from West Virginia as my family is from there and I have some experience in that state. I haven't done a ton of African American research in my own research, but I can at least post what I do find for others to work off of in the future. I will start with Kanawha County, West Virginia as my mom is from that area and there is a spreadsheet for that county already up.

I hope to be able to work on this as time permits.

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Thank you, Jeanne ~ we welcome any help you can provide. If you can remember to add the {{African-American Sticker}} and a birth location category on each profile we'd appreciate it. 

You can also add any of these that apply:

1.[[Category:US Black Heritage Project, Family Tree Size One]]

2. [[Category:US Black Heritage Project, Needs Profiles Created]]

3. [[Category:US Black Heritage Project, Needs Sources]] 

4. For any slavery era profiles: [[Category:USBH Heritage Exchange]]

Thank you!

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Hi, Just checking in on the Yazoo, MS sheet.

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Dana, Yazoo County isn't ready yet - it's huge. We could use some help in other Mississippi counties, though!

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Hi Dana, 

The 1880 census for Yazoo County is up in Mississippi. There are two spreadsheets.

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I have found a whole family attached to David Butler, who lived in Cumberland County in 1880, but he and his family were not living in Cumberland County in 1860. I went ahead and added the sticker to the family members. Should they be added to another county's spreadsheet? Butler-15083,

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Hi Alexandria, no, the 1880 is the only place you need to add their profile ID's. Thanks!

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I'm finding numerous Black families in the 1870 Wake Co. NC Census who are not present in the 1880 Census. I'm creating Wiki profiles for them with whatever info I can find and adding the sticker, but you don't want them included on the 1880 spreadsheet, right?

thanks!

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Hi Judith, no we wouldn't add them to the 1880 spreadsheet since they aren't present in that county in 1880. Hopefully they'll be found eventually in another location.

Answer 1

How are you creating the spreadsheets? I have had success using the familysearch options from the search results, but you have to trim it down to manageable chunks. I was only pulling one surname at a time when I did it

Comments

Hi Jonathan, We usually use FS to extract data for a lot of our projects, but the 1880 census transcription is very messed up over there. So we are alternating between FS and Ancestry (the 1880 census is free to view at Ancestry) depending on how good the data is for each location.

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I plan to partner with you in this goal and hopefully recruit a few others as well. Thank you for organizing this undertaking.

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Thank you, Nathaniel!

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I'm finding that FS data with appropriate filters brings in individuals from other counties.  Is it safe to just delete those whose residence in 1880 is not in the county you are searching?  I'm going to try Ancestry and see if I can get it pared down before I delete those.

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Yes, I do delete them, Kathy, when other counties appear in the search results. Personally, I'm using Ancestry to create spreadsheets. It's been far less of a headache for me since the indexing isn't so good for 1880 census at FS.

Answer 2

I would like to help. Could I do Kent County in Michigan? It would cover part of another project that I am doing. I just reached out to someone in Grand Rapids asking if they have the index for the early census records as that would make the work a little easier as most of the people for Kent County would be in Grand Rapids.

Comments

Hi Colleen, since there are only 513 in the county, that's something we could easily set up. I'll send you a PM.

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Kent County is ready to go - here's the spreadsheet.

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Christy beat me to it. I was just about to make it. Thanks, Christy!

Answer 3

I will try to find time. Meanwhile, I have been trying to find Middleton Heidelberg (1826-1881) (Heidelberg-52) in the 1860 census, where he is listed as owner of 3 slaves in Mobile Alabama in the slave schedule (I see this on FS). Yet he does not himself appear in the census. His wife and their 6 children (Harriet Hidleburge) appear without him in the Clay Co. Georgia 1860 census on FS. They all moved to Texas by 1870. Seems odd.

Comments

Thanks Mack! Sometimes people just get skipped in the census for various reasons or he may have been living separately from his family. The slave schedules generally record people by the location where the enslaved people lived/worked, so there are occasions where certain people owned plantations and slaves in multiple counties (or a different county than where they lived) and so they are recorded in different locations on the slave schedule than where they lived. The slave schedules don't give much biographical information about the owners though, so in cases like that, it's always good to do additional research and make sure the record belongs to the person you think it does instead of someone else with the same name. You may need to check if there are other people with that same name living in the same location in 1860. Or look into deed records or probate records to determine if the person from the slave schedule is the same person you're researching.

Also, the 1860 census on FS has a lot of people who are unindexed because an earlier scan of the census had a lot of pages that were illegible because the writing was too light. They've since rescanned the images so that you can read them now, but they haven't gone back and re-indexed them. It might be helpful to try a search on another site that has the 1860 census.

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Great answer! I looked further on FS by just surname Heidelberg, and a family of four popped up... Moses Heisdelberg and Hannah. But looking at the cursive, it is just a bad transcription, there is no "s" in there at all. One surname is spelled Heidelberg, the other Hiedelberg. They must have been the ones owning the 3 slaves in the slave schedule. I edited FS to reflect the true spelling. I'll have to keep looking for Middleton Heidelberg elsewhere....

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I wish to do the Turrentine families in America as I am the historian for this association.  I created a chart for the 1880 census, example at Turrentine-689, based on charts for other censuses I have seen at Wikitree.  Hope it is acceptable.

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That's fine Joyce! Those tables are usually created using the WikiTree Sourcer browser extension, which will make it a lot easier than doing it by hand if you're finding the census information on a genealogy site like Ancestry and FamilySearch. This project isn't set up especially well for people interested in one specific surname, it's more based on location, but you're welcome to look through the spreadsheets we have ready to go here to see if you find any Turrentine families in them. Otherwise, any profiles you work on should eventually be found as we get to those locations and can be added to the spreadsheets later. We'll be able to find them more easily if you add a location category like [[Category: Bedford County, Tennessee]] to the profiles above the biography heading.

Answer 4

I am happy to help. I will focus on the Midwest states.

I reviewed the first two entries for Minnesota.  I believe these records are not correct.  While the FS sheet says "Mulatto" (Christ Erixson), they are indexed "W" for white when you open the document.  Am I confused about this?

Was "Mulatto" used for people with American Indian blood (they are not African American)?  I am working on Nancy Foulstrom and someone researched her adding sources in FamilySeach (Father is Swedish, Mother is American Indian).  The information indicates she is American Indian.

Comments

There are definitely some people whose race was indexed incorrectly - the M for mulatto and W for white are the most common mix-ups. Please see the second bullet point in the FAQ section on the 1880 census project page for more information.

The instructors for enumerators of the 1880 census included four racial categories (white, colored, Indian, Chinese), so Native Americans should have been recorded as Indian, though there are always some cases where some enumerators did not follow directions. It's also possible that her mother had both Native American and African American ancestors. It's always good to find multiple sources to confirm details like this if you can. If her heritage is just Native American and not African-American, you can just note that on the spreadsheet and move on to the next person, or if you want to create a profile for her, go ahead, just don't use the {{African-American Sticker}} on her profile.

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Thanks Christy.  What I did find was a source for Native American for this family (quite a few of them on the spreadsheet) but no resources that indicate "black".  I am moving on to those that look to be correct and ignoring those that are borderline/questionable.

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Sounds good. Thanks Phillip!

Answer 5

I tend to work at blanketing the Ozark regions where my parents are from.  If you can get a spreadsheet for Izard County, Arkansas especially, I think quite a few of those will already be here and can just be ticked off.  I'll work in neighboring populations as well, where I already know these people were moving and marrying:  Baxter Co., Stone Co., Fulton Co., Sharp Co., Searcy Co., Independence Co , all in Arkansas.  And then Howell Co., Missouri.  No hurry.

Comments

I went ahead and got Izard County set up to get you started. I'll add the rest of these to the to-do list.

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Thanks, LaMyra! and Thanks so much, Christy for helping with those spreadsheets.

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All the rest of these are ready to go now - all of the Arkansas counties you listed are included in this spreadsheet and Howell County, Missouri is included in this spreadsheet. Thanks for working on this project!

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Thanks for getting them ready.  That should keep me busy for a while!!

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Izard County, Arkansas has been completed.

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Yay! I saw last night that it was very very close. First county in Arkansas!

Answer 6

I'm creating spreadsheets and profiles for this project. I'd like to concentrate on Suffolk County, New York. Also working on Horry County, South Carolina.

Comments

Thanks creating profiles for the project and especially for working on the spreadsheets!

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I can also help with Horry County, SC, Lucy. Most of my ancestors are from that area.

Answer 7

I'll toddle along on this project. My preference would be to work on counties in Northeast Tennessee. I'll start on the county that has a spreadsheet available in Tennessee.

I have also got a Boy family in Morris County, Texas in my one name study that were African American. When that spreadsheet is available, I'll work there as well.

Comments

Northeast Tennesse is a big place . If you have a specific county in mind that you'd like to start with, let us know. We'll be able to get it set up more quickly if you choose one that doesn't have a big city in it. 

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I am most familiar with Carter, Sullivan, and Washington counties.

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Carter County is ready to go now - the rest of these counties are on our to-do list. Thanks for working on this project, Emily!

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Great! I started on one family in Cheatham County - and may have found some of them on 1860 Slave Census. So of course, now am also researching that family. Once I get this family sorted, I'll move to one of the other counties that are set.

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Hello Emily H.

I would love to work with you on Carter County, TN!!  I am Bi-Racial and I have a whole lot of family who were from Carter County!! Still have lots of family there today!!! I will admit that I don't really know alot about connecting profiles!!! So, I may need some help. I am hoping that this may also help my journey!! Please let me know if you would like me to join you!!

Thanks

Jakki

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Fantastic Jakki! Would love to have some assistance with Carter County. I am seeing what a huge project this is after just beginning on one family!

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Great!! My only problem is I do not know how to begin!!!  Maybe you can point me in the right direction. You can email me directly if that would be a better way to help me begin this!!

Thanks

Jakki

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OK, So, I opened the 1880 Census spreadsheet for Carter County, TN. I see John and Sarah Gardner. They are my 2nd Great Grandparents and they already have a profile on my Family Tree. My question is, how do I connect them??

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Hi Jakki-

Glad do have you join in on this census project! I'm going to send you a private message with some more information and answering your question. Usually it's recommended that you don't post your email on G2G, so you may want to edit your earlier reply and remove it. Other WikiTreers can send you a private message by going to your profile and clicking on the "[send private message]" link next to your name in the Profile Manager box right under where your parents/siblings/children are listed. These private messages go to your email address. So check your email in a little bit for my message!

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thank you Christy. I have removed my email. I look forward to seeing yours.

Jakki

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Emily - Sullivan County, Tennessee is ready to go now too in this spreadsheet.

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Fantastic! I've already spotted one family that I am familiar with. I have them in my Ancestry Tree, but I don't think I've created WikiTree profiles yet. Former slaves of a 2nd great grand uncle.

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Emily, Morris County, Texas is available to work on.

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Emily - Washington County, Tennessee is ready now too!

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Thanks so much for adding these!

Answer 8

Of course...working on Jones county, Mississippi.

Comments

Thanks Gina!

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Go, Gina!

Answer 9

Do you only want the families in the states where there is already a spreadsheet?  I thought I'd work on a few counties in New York State.  I have mixed relatives that are in that census and my research area includes several NY counties.  I've looked been through the 1880s census for those counties multiple times. The instructions go to the states spreadsheet but then says to go to the spreadsheet and pick a family.  NY doesn't have a spreadsheet.  Please advise.  I can copy one of the existing spreadsheet and edit and rename it but it might be better if you create it.  My counties in NYS are Greene, Ulster, Sullivan, Delaware. Thanks.

Comments

Eventually we want every African American who was enumerated in the 1880 census, but we're starting with at least one spreadsheet per state. With over 6 million African Americans in the 1880 census, it will take time to get every spreadsheet created and we want WikiTreers to be able to get started on the project as soon as possible instead of waiting until all spreadsheets are ready. I've added Greene County to the existing New York spreadsheet and I'll add these other counties to our to do list.

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The rest of these counties are now also included in that same spreadsheet. So you should be all set! Thanks for joining in with this project! If you have any questions as you get started, let me know.

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Lorraine, how are you doing with those counties?

Answer 10

I noticed your post and knew of a family in 1880 California. I simply could not figure out how to get to the state table on your spreadsheet. They did not have a profile so i created ones and am working on adding the 10 children. Sorry I am inept at some of the tech stuff.

Cross off [[Disard-1|James L. Disard (1841-1904)]]

Comments

Thanks Nancy! I got him added to the spreadsheet. If you want to work on additional California families, the spreadsheet is here and if you look at the bottom of the spreadsheet, you should see tabs for different states. Click on the California tab there to pull up the list of people from California.

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Thanks! I am adding his in-laws that were in a different household so will find on the spreadsheet and mark. One other question, please take a look at Maria Unknown. I believe her last name at birth is likely Miller, based on who I assume her mother to be (first sentence of bio explains). Do you think that's a safe bet? Also, are these people considered free people of color for your project and is the category I used correct?

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1. Since the 1860 census doesn't state relationships, that probably isn't enough proof for LNAB to be Miller or to be sure that Lucy is her mother, though it's a good hypothesis to note in the biography. As you research Maria and her children, you might find some records that give her maiden name - sometimes it's listed on children's vital records.

2. The free people of color (FPOC) categories are for people who were free before 1865. If they were enumerated in the population schedule (the regular census records we normally look at for genealogy) anytime before 1865, then they were free and can have the appropriate FPOC category/categories added. In Maria's case, you  could use both [[Category: California, Free People of Color]] and [[Category: Kentucky, Free People of Color]] since she lived in both of those states before 1865.

3. We use the category "USBH Free People of Color, Needs Linked" for when a person was free before 1865 but hasn't been linked to any profiles for their children yet - we're trying to track which people from that time period have been connected to the next generation forward in time. Since Maria has children linked, you could use the category "USBH Free People of Color, Linked" instead.

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I guess I will stop adding these since I can't figure out how to add me ID to the spreadsheet. In any event I added Richard B. Schofield. He is numbers 1087 and 1089 on the California spreadsheet. He and his wife were enumerated twice and all the occupants of household added. I'll quit now. ;-(

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It might be more complicated if you're working on a phone or tablet instead of a computer, but you should be able to click inside of the box/cell on the spreadsheet where the ID goes and then type it in there (or copy/paste it there). If that's not working for you and you want to keep working on the project though, maybe you could just keep a list of the profiles you create and send me a direct message with the list once a week and then I can get them added to the spreadsheet. If you send me the name, line number in the spreadsheet, and the WikiTree ID, I can add them in pretty quickly.

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I've got the hang of it finally! I have added several from the State of California this weekend. I will continue to work on them as time permits if that is all right with you. :-)

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Glad to hear that! It's definitely okay with us :) We'd be happy for you to continue working on it whenever you have time.

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I am relatively new to WikiTree and I'm really impressed with your citation style.  How can I create citations with tables?

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If you were complimenting me, thank you! I use Wikitree Sourcer. It's a Browser Extension developed by Wikitree member Rob Pavey. It is very easy to use and ask anyone here, they know I am tech challenged. There have been times, I can't figure out how to make certain of the Extension capabilities work, and Rob has very patiently messaged me more detailed instructions.

I mainly use it for making source citation from either FamilySearch.org or Ancestry.com. The extension even makes sharable links to Ancestry. I use it to also create the household tables for some of the census records.

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Thanks Nancy!  I'll give it a try.

Answer 11

This sounds like a very interesting project!  I would really like to help.  I already do spread sheets for my Italian and Polish ancestry research, so I'm used to working with spread sheets.  I will give it a go!  Is there a time limit on this project?  And are we not worried about profiles not connected to the big wikitree? ---Just creating profiles with families connected to each other?

Comments

Thanks J! There's no time limit on the project - it will probably take years. There are over 6 million African Americans enumerated in the 1880 census and at the beginning of 2024, we had ~260,000 African American profiles on WikiTree. But we'd love it if a lot of people join in this month during Black History Month and we'd welcome anyone who wants to continue working on it after that until it's complete.

We're not making connection to the big tree a main focus of this project, just family groups connected to each other. But we're hoping that as people work through specific towns and counties, connection will happen naturally, at least in locations where there was a significant African American population. This was the case when our Ohio team piloted the project in a single town - I'd guess that by the time we had about 30% of the profiles for that town created, we were finding that most new profiles we were creating could be connected right away or by adding just one or two extra profiles. At that point, we usually had at least one member of the 1880 census household who was either married to someone who already had a profile or who was a child or parent of someone who already had a profile. Of course, results will vary from location to location, depending on things like how much intermarriage there was within the community and whether the population tended to stay put or whether it had a lot of migration.

But also, if you like to work on connecting, you're welcome to add additional generations and collateral lines until you get families connected - you're not limited to one household at a time from the spreadsheet.

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Sounds great!  Thanks for the helpful information.  I will start on it this month for sure.

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Christy, My question is this. Are we only creating profiles for people on the 1880 census that can attach to a tree? or, are we just creating profiles for all the people on the 1880 census? If the latter is the case, how do I create a profile for someone on the census that does NOT connect to my tree??  I am working of Northeast TN. Carter County. I began with a family on there that was my very own. Some of them already had profiles on my tree, so I created the rest of them. Now, zI would like to creat others but I don't have a tree to connect them to. I also don't know how to create profiles for people not connected to a tree. Maybe someone can help me!!

Thanks

Jakki

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It's the latter - everyone in the 1880 census. To add unrelated people, go to the "Add" menu in the top right, the click on "New Person" from the drop down menu.

Answer 12

I forgot to post an answer myself :-) I will be working on the western states. Once those are finished, I'll help work on some of the states my own family is from such as Minnesota, North Dakota, Colorado, and Nebraska.

Comments

Thanks Emma! It'll be good to get more profiles added in those states :)

Answer 13

Thanks to Christy. And I still like Prtland, Oregon for a focus.

Comments

All of Oregon is on the tab for that state since it's so small. It's almost finished!

Answer 14

Glad to help.  I've been working on Pickens County, South Carolina.

Comments

Fabulous! Thanks, Suzanne.

Answer 15

I jumped in on Lincoln County, Maine, where I live. My second household was that of Sanford Freeman. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Freeman-23713 Turns out his grandfather fought in the Revolutionary War and his father's genealogy was covered in an article in the NEHG Register, and he's connected! Talk about a rabbit hole!

Comments

Yay! Thanks, Kate. Maine will be finished in no time!

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Hi Kate! I live in Maine, too, so maybe I'll see what I can contribute.

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Jump on in, Jaki! Mason Bunker and I want to try to get it done by March 1st. :)

Whereabouts in Maine are you? I'm in Boothbay Harbor.

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I live on Mt Desert Island.  I thought I'd work on some Hancock County profiles.  I got stumped right off the bat, though, by Evalina Diggs.  I thought it would be an easy one because it's an unusual name, but there are two of them on Family Search as far as I can tell.  Spent an hour trying to figure out which was which and finally gave up.

Maybe I'll try again later and just add info on both to the profile notes. I'm recently retired, so I have a bit of time.

Nice to meet you!

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Love your name!!! Mine is Jakki!!

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Hi Jakki!  I'm also officially a Jacqueline.  The spelling was my mom's idea.  :-)

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lol, mine is Jacqueline also! Named after Jacqueline Kennedy! but Jakki, I guess my Mom just wanted t be different!!

Answer 16

I am interesting in helping with those who lived in Georgia.  I actually have already done a lot of work with Appling County and have made a lot of connections. I would be interested in seeing a spreadsheet for that county to see how much further I need to go to complete the county.

Comments

Thanks Kristin! The Appling County spreadsheet is ready to go now.

Answer 17

great project, let me help on a couple southern New Jersey counties to start, Cape May and Cumberland so we can finish them. Work my way up to Camden...

Comments

Thanks H! The spreadsheet for Cape May is ready to go and the other two have been added to our to-do list. 

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Cumberland is also ready to go now.

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Camden A-J is now available, thanks for your work!

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Dear H,

I'm slowly working through Monmouth County, NJ.  Just FYI. -NGP

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That's awesome, Nannette. i am still working my way through Cape May, almost everyone is related.

I'm taking note of anyone with a post-1878 vital record that would confirm a connection for this project. message me if you need a certificate at the State Archives, I'll pull the microfilm.

Answer 18

I've been working on Lafayette County, MS but will eventually end up branching out to other places, probably Meriwether and Troup Counties in Georgia next.

Comments

Thanks Miyako- I've added this to our list of spreadsheets to create, but they are larger counties, so it will take a little bit longer before we're able to get them done.

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Hi, Miyako, Meriwether and Troup counties are ready to go. Thanks! 

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Thanks, Emma and Christy!

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Lafayette County in Mississippi is ready now too.

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I was already working on a Lafayette County spreadsheet that was created on November 12th.

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Can you send me a link to it?

Answer 19

Hello, folks -

   New Jersey is where I will put in time when I get a chance.  I just added a family in Middlesex County.  Could you let me know when Monmouth County is available?  That is the one I'm most familiar with.  Thanks for all your good work on this ambitious project.  -NGP

Comments

Thanks Nanette! I'll let you know when it's available.

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It's ready to go here.

Answer 20

I would like to help and focus on Rabun County, Georgia. I see there's already a tab on the Georgia spreadsheet, can I go ahead and get started?

Comments

Thanks Paul - yep you can go ahead and get started! Just make sure to read the directions on the first tab.