4 replies to this topic

[cassandra]

I would like to get some ideas as to how others are entering Census Slave Schedules, I ordered the Mills new book not here yet.

Thanks for any help.

Cassandra

[ggilbert1]

Don't have any slaves or slave owners so can't help with tags.
For source citations replace population schedule, with slave schedule.

[Terry Reigel]

I enter the information about number, sex, and sometimes a general description of age range, in the Memo of the family's Census tag. I treat it in the same way as relatives, boarders, or servants in the household, using it to show something of the family's life style.

I have a custom Source Type for slave schedules, as there are several differences between them and the poplulation schedules - "owner" instead of "household," the name of the schedule of course, they are all in 1850 and 1860 so have no ED number, and there are dwelling and family numbers, but are line numbers. My source type:

FF: <[CD1], owner, >[TITLE], [COUNTY], [STATE], slave schedule<, [CD2]><, sheet [CD3] (unnumbered)><, lines [CD4]><, National Archives micropublication [FILM NUMBER]><, [COMMENTS]><, [CD5]>

SF: [CD1], owner, [TITLE], [COUNTY], [STATE], slave schedule<, [CD2]><, sheet [CD3]><, lines [CD4]><, [CD5]>

Biblio: [STATE]. [COUNTY]. [TITLE], slave schedule. Micropublication [FILM NUMBER]. Washington: National Archives

I use split CDs, but you could make one source per owner and replace the CD segments with regular source elements instead. My CD segments:

CD1 = name of owner
CD2 = location or town
CD3 = sheet number
CD4 = line numbers (I put in a range, and since the numbers repeat in the two columns, I use somesthing like "23 left - 6 right" - I see Evidence Explained omits them.
CD5 = any notes about the entry

Note that this format, like the one I use for population schedules, puts the person's name first, and thus does not follow the new format. I think the subject first is better, and will continue to use it for all sorts of public sources that have records focused on individuals, including census.

[GenerationGoneBy]

Another thing I do is actually create people for each of the slaves. I have been able to find some bills of sales for one of my ancestors that not only told the slave's name, but age and other data. This helped me to set up the people as well. For some of the slaves, I was able to follow them after 1870 on the census and see who they were living with (often still with the owner as a paid servant). You can sometimes tract the slaves in wills and deeds for the owners as well. Hopefully this will be helpful for someone trying to research these individuals.

[GenerationGoneBy]

Bumping this due to recent questions on TMG-L