What you can learn from the 1840 US Census

I just finished reading The Secrets of the 1840 Census, Revealed on ancestralfindings.com. It was an eye opener. In the past I thought any census taken before 1850 was generally a waste of time except for citing the head of household's name. But this article gives some great insight into what can be found and what you won’t find in other census records, even after 1840. Much of the information included in the 1840 census is particular to that census alone. Most interesting to me is the listing of Revolutionary War Pensioners. Who knew?

Taken directly from the ancestralfindings.com website:

Here are the things the 1840 census includes that you won’t find in earlier census records:

• The name of the head of the household
• The address of the house (useful if you want to try to find it, or the land on which it was located)
• The number of free white males and free white females, divided into the following age groups: 0-5 years, 5-10 years, 10-15 years, 15-20 years, 20-30 years and every 10 years up to age 100, and ages 100 and older.
• The number of slaves in the household, divided into the same age groups and by gender
• The number of free black people in the household, divided into the same age groups and by gender
• The number of insane people in a household, by race
• The number of deaf, mute, and blind people in a household, by race
• The number of people actively attending school in each household
• Seven different occupations, and the number of people in the household employed in each of these occupations, if any
• The number of white people in a household over the age of 20 who could not read or write
• The number of Revolutionary War pensioners in the household