I found my ancestor now how do I reconstruct the 1890 census?

Example of how I would use this tax list:

I, Joy Mack, am a descendant of William Culver. In the Milton precinct 1, I find my great-great grandfather.

Taking the information from the 1880 census and 1900 census plus Bible records with dates of birth, and deaths, and cemetery records, I now can put together how the household of William Culver would have been recorded in the 1890 Census.

1880 Census 1900 Census 1890 Census Culver, William Culver, William Culver, William Wife Frances wife Frances wife Frances Son Robert son Frank son Robert Daughter Nancy son Frank Son Elmo

From Bible Records: Frank was born Nov. 1880. Nancy and Elmo, both died in 1889 of measles. Robert didn’t marry until 1896. With this information I can now reconstruct how William’s household would have been recorded during the taking of the 1890 Census. After collecting together this information, I can look at a Census form from 1890 and plug in the data as it would have been recorded. I now have reconstructed the household of William Culver for the census year 1890.

What if my ancestor is not listed?

If you have a relative that you are researching that appears in the 1880 and 1900 census for Trimble County, and that relative does not appear in the tax list, remember he or she could have been exempted, missed, or recorded in the Court Order books. Further research would be need to be done to determine why an individual was not listed.

Or,if a relative appears in one of the two censuses (1880/1900) for Trimble County Kentucky, and in another county elsewhere for the other year, then all sources would have to be investigated in both Counties to see what the possibilities and likelihood of where that family could have been living during the 1890 census. Using each year’s tax list in both counties would be a good starting point.

As with any transcribing, it is best to check out the actual records yourself. Transcribing is a tool only, mistakes can happen. “To Err is human”! The handwriting in the 1890 tax list was at times very hard to read. The handwriting was very poor as was the tax collector’s spelling. For each page of names, there are four pages of data. Mostly things like the number of livestock, the amount of grains, etc. The amount of data on each individual was too much to fully transcribe the microfilm. Therefore, what information you will see here is only what was considered the most important data. If you are interested in the complete data on an individual, you will need to refer to the microfilm.

Transcribed by Joy Mack and Proof-read by Violet Jennings—2003.

(Thank you to both of these wonderful women for all the effort they've put into this project! With much appreciation to you both - from Maggie - and all other Trimble researchers!)

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