I don't know if there is still a Chazy township or a Clinton County in the state of New York. If there isn't, it wouldn't be the first or last time that a census record outlived a name.
If you click on this image you can make it larger. This image, even with the bleed thru of the ink is still around 100% readable. It's not easy. First there is the task of learning how to read handwriting from over 200 years ago. Just as the words we use have changed, the way we made our letters in 1810 has changed over the last two centuries, too. Sometimes not a lot and in some cases, the changes are stagering.
To give you an idea of what a genealogist faces, this site has some great samples at the bottom of the page. Click on the century you'd like to view.
Not all handwriting is created equal. And in this case when there is ink bleed thru it can be a challenge.
Another problem is there was a very large portion of the population who did not know how to read or write in 1810. In a lot of cases the census taker couldn't ask them how to spell their given or their surname. Plus it was a great big melting pot with various accents among this brand new country.
If you're still following me, take your surname or a surname of any of your family lines. Click on the picture and try to find it there. As a rule, while you maybe can't read every thing written there, you can tell pretty easily if that page of the census contains the surname you're attempting to locate. Handwriting, bleed thru, the whole ball of wax. Can you with confidently state that the surname you opted to search for is there or is not there?
I'd rate the image quality from fair to poor. Where the bleed thru is located it's poor, the rest of it is fair. Still, it provides me with the proof I'm trying to locate. My ancestor was not enumerated on that image number in Chazy Township, Clinton County, New York.
Another thing I try to remember, when the hand writing gets very sloppy, this same man wrote all those names for that enumeration district. Some of them in a day. His hands were probably very tired at the end of the day.
Back in 1810, a man started out one morning to make an accounting of all those living in this district. At some point in that day he stopped at each of these homes and learned the age ranges and gender of each person in his district. Two hundred and two years ago. Probably this time of year, since a lot of the early censuses were conducted in July and August. Was it hot in your area today? It didn't stop that census taker. He had a job to do.
Today you've had the honor of observing a part of his job, but also an accounting of every family on this page. Each line with a name represents the whole household. Look at all the people you've got a small sampling of their lives by viewing one page of a federal census. They all were alive 202 years ago. Right now, as you read their names, these unknown names for the most part, there's a small flicker of their lives from over 200 years ago.
Feels good, doesn't it?
good info Jody
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