One has to remember that when this country was formed, if our forefathers and/or ancestors had any inkling to being PC their definition of what was PC is very different from what we've had shoved down our throats over the last decade or longer.
When we review these records, if we are using our terminology from 2012 then we'll miss a lot of information.
Genealogy is also referred to as family history. To date, I've noticed that if the researcher relates things to our present world, they usually have a mess on their hands. First, they won't be able to locate several counties and/or townships on a present day map. Some of the births that happened in present day New York state actually happened in Connecticut when the event actually happened. And vice versa.
State lines changed. County lines changed. Township lines changed. Some counties no longer exist. Some townships no longer exist.
Not only do we have a respectable knowledge about the history of the locations where our ancestors lived, we need to have a fair knowledge about the social history, too.
In the early census records the classifications were very simple. There were free white males in various age groups and there were free white females in various age groups. We also had two more classifications. Slaves and free colored persons.
If you use how we look at these other two classifications, most people will assume what the government during that time really wanted to know as how many of the black population were slaves and how many were free. You'd be very, very wrong.
First, slaves included persons of every color. There were white slaves, black slaves, red slaves, etc., etc., etc. If your 4X great grandmother who came from England was sent to America as a slave, she will not show up being listed by her name in the early censuses. In the eyes of our young government, she was not a person, she was property, therefore she was listed with the property called slaves.
The free persons of color category is another one that many people believe refers only to the black population. Again, they are wrong.
Any free person who is not white is listed in the free persons of color category. Do you have what we call Native American in your family history. If your Native American ancestors were enumerated they would be in this category. However, and this is a very large however, only if they were taxed. If they were on a reservation, or roaming unsettled areas of the country, they won't be enumerated on most of the early censuses.
While it might grate some researchers, the truth is, it can be very helpful, too. For instance, most of us have a family story that there's Indian in our line. At least my family story doesn't include the Cherokee Princess version. I haven't proven or disproven this. However, let's say that I know the head of the family for all my ancestors and I'm able to find everyone of the heads of household in the 1820 Federal Census (I don't and I haven't, but this is pretend), if I can only find John Smith, 4X great grandfather in upper state New York. However, he is not listed as a free white male. Instead, he's listed as a free person of color, I would know that there's a very good chance this is where I should concentrate when I decide it's time to explore the Indian family story.
If you want to spend a lot of time and energy proclaiming that our forefathers were bigots, go right ahead. The truth is, even today we are asked about ethnicity on not only the census forms, but almost every form we fill out.
Personally, instead of gnashing my teeth over any intentions, good or bad, our forefathers may have had for making these distinctions between free whites and everyone else, I can better spend my time learning what they meant when they classified someone as colored and then use that information to search for my ancestors.
Honestly, when one decides to pursue genealogy, or family history, we do so wanting to acquire information about our ancestors, or the ancestors of others if you're a professional genealogist for hire. We are not supposed to change the past. Just present the past according to what we've found.
We can't judge our ancestors using the standards we have today anymore than we'd want them to judge us using the standards they lived under. Until we learn what the standards were for that period of time and what the terminology was, we won't be able to present their life accurately because we'll be using today's standards, not theirs.
No comments:
Post a Comment