September 13, 2024
As anyone who reads this blog knows, I love the U.S. census. It’s my go-to record whenever I begin a new genealogy project. The censuses, particularly those from 1850 forward are a snapshot of Americans at a specific time and place. Unlike other records that only cover some people, the censuses enumerate everyone. It doesn’t matter whether your ancestors were poor or rich, immigrants or native born, they’re all there in the censuses.
You can find names, family relationships, citizenship status, ages, and countries of origin in censuses. In addition to all of that, sometimes you get an extra bonus. For example, occasionally someone was enumerated twice on the same census. This happened because it usually took census takers several months to cover their territory. People’s lives were not static, and they sometimes moved or visited or went away to school and therefore got enumerated twice.
These double enumerations can sometimes help flesh out an ancestor’s life. My third great grandmother Sally Hadlock and eight of her children were living in Council Bluffs, Iowa, when the census taker enumerated them in 1850. The official census day that year was June 1, but Sally probably wasn’t enumerated until sometime later that summer.
At the time the census taker arrived at the Hadlock farm, the family was likely packing and preparing to set out for Utah. The family had arrived in Iowa sometime in 1847 with the vanguard of the Mormon church who were moving to the frontier to avoid the persecution they’d experienced elsewhere.
Sally’s husband Stephen died that fall from disease. Sally and her children remained in Iowa for several years to work and prepare for the long journey to Utah. By 1850, they were ready to set off for the West.
There are no records showing which wagon train the Hadlock Family travelled with. I’ve found no journals or diaries that mention their overland trip. I only know that the Hadlock’s crossed the plains in 1850 because they were enumerated twice in the census that year. In addition to the Iowa census, Sally was on the 1850 census for Weber County, Utah.
Although the census date for 1850 was June 1, Utah did not become a part of the United States until September. Because of this, the census date for Utah Territory was extended to April 1, 1851. Since the Hadlock’s were on the census in Utah, they must have arrived there before that date.
Wagon trains to the West typically left from the Missouri River, where Council Bluffs is located, in the spring of the year. They needed to be in California, Utah or Oregon before the heavy snows of winter made wagon travel impossible. It took several months to make the journey behind a team of oxen, and most wagon trains tried to leave as early in the spring as the grass grew.
Based on their double enumeration in Iowa and Utah in 1850, I know that my third great grandmother and her children crossed the plains between the two enumerations. They most likely travelled during the later summer and early fall. I now have a window into my ancestors’ lives that wouldn’t have been open to me without the census. You can see why I love censuses.
Carol Stetser
Researcher
Larimer County Genealogical Society