| 28 Oct 1999
I have just discovered that there are data unexpectedly missing from
the 1820 Census Index (CD-314). For reasons known only to the producers
of this database and/or the CD, all surnames beginning with letters "A"
through "E" and some "Fs" from Tennessee counties are missing from the
CD. The Tennessee records start somewhere in the "Fs." (Actually,
there is one record in the "Bs," but under the circumstances, that
is hardly worth mentioning). To give you an appreciation for the
volume of records that must be missing, there are over 1500 records in
TN for surnames beginning with "G," and surnames beginning with "G" are
much less common than those beginning with letters "A" through "D."
In volume, we are probably talking about roughly half the Tennessee records.
After making this discovery, I decided to check the other states, with
these results:
SC has only 14 records for surnames "A" through "D," none for "E";
and, as with TN, the records commence "normally" somewhere in the "Fs."
MS has only 181 records for surnames "A" through "E"; and, as with TN,
the records commence normally somewhere in the "Fs."
These appear to be the only states affected. The records for TX
and WI are somewhat scanty and irregular, but this appears to be because
TX and WI were still territories in 1820 and mostly unsettled, at least
by Europeans.
| In summary, the states effected
in 1820 by the missing records for surnames beginning A through F are: |
| MISSISSIPPI,
SOUTH
CAROLINA, and TENNESSEE |
NOTE: These deficiencies also appear to
afflict the online version of these databases at GenealogyLibrary.com.
Ancestry.com is also lacking the TN records, but appears to have some SC
and MS records, but I haven't tested these thoroughly. An easy test
for this deficiency is to do a search on BROWN or CLARK or DAVIS, which
are extremely common surnames in the United States. Any state without
these surnames must have a deficient index.
UPDATE (11
Jan 2004): It appears the new indices online at Genealogy.com do
not have these flaws. I haven't checked exhaustively, yet. |