Election Districts in census tags

[MMj 0]

I've been playing around with the expanded Census Tag article on Terry's TMG Tips page. I didn't have any trouble getting the mechanism in place, because his directions were very clear and well presented. But in looking at the place data on some of my census forms, I'm a little unclear as to the best way to present it in the tag.

 

For example, one record that I am working with is for the 1920 census in St. Mary's County, Maryland. The name of the county and state present no problem.

 

The "Name of Incorporated Place" blank on the St. Mary's 1920 census records that I have is frequently left blank. That is perhaps because, even today, there is only one incorporated town in all of St. Mary's County. So the fact that my ancestor lived in the village of Mechanicsville is not recorded on the census form. What is typically recorded in the "Township or Other Division of County" blank is the election district number - in this case "5th Election District".

 

The detailed address data is almost meaningless for a single family, because it is written in the long blank on the left side of the census form as "South of the road from Dubois to New Market to Huntersville to Persimmon Creek". This information applies to every family on the census page.

 

My problem arises because there is only a single "City" field on the tag form. In a case where it is listed on the census form, like Leonardtown, I can put that in the city field, but then I don't have anywhere to put the election district. If I don't know the city, I could put the election district in the city field, and that works, but I don't like to do it that way, since "5th Election District" isn't a city or town name.

 

Does anyone have any adivce?

 

Thanks

Mike

[Alison 0]

My problem arises because there is only a single "City" field on the tag form. In a case where it is listed on the census form, like Leonardtown, I can put that in the city field, but then I don't have anywhere to put the election district. If I don't know the city, I could put the election district in the city field, and that works, but I don't like to do it that way, since "5th Election District" isn't a city or town name.

 

Does anyone have any adivce?

 

Thanks

Mike

 

I think I have a tendency to over record census data in the citations but I tend to use the city field for everything that doesn't fit uniquely into an other field. For example I might have "Jefferson Twp., Stone Creek Post Office, North of Phillipsburg" or "Streator, ward 4, Precinct A" as cities. It does make my citations longer but it also makes locating "non-towns" or old street addresses easier.

[GenerationGoneBy 0]

I put the Civil District (Tennessee) in the place field. I find that people tended to live in the same Civil District from census year to year, so if I couldn't find them in the index, I could narrow down where to read page by page based on the Civil District from the years before or after.

[MMj 0]

Thank you, Alison and Teresa, for the helpful information. Sometimes I can't see the forest for the trees, and it really helps to have thoughtful souls like you out there to point me in the right direction.