Tuesday’s Tip: Censuses and Murrell DNA, Part 5

Murrell Family, ancestors of our Roberts Family (Click for Family Tree)

Tuesday’s Tip: Analyze each column of the census carefully to learn more about a family.

Today we continue looking at families that we have found DNA connections to, in the hope of finding out more about our elusive ancestor, Wiley Anderson Murrell. Seeing this census with missing data brings up an important tip- always look a bit further.

John Cobb Murrell and Cornelia Frances (Smithson) Murrell were newlyweds when enumerated in this 1850 U.S. Federal Census in Campbell County, Virginia. (They had married about 6 months earlier, on 15 March 1850.) Analyzing the columns, we noticed that the first two, for dwelling and family number, have no entry for John or any of the others living in that home. Looking at the names of persons listed, only Cornelia appears to be related, plus the four persons listed after Cornelia are all adults, and the two children listed above John do not have a parent listed. So it is time to… yes, turn the page- though we probably can’t call it that anymore since we are not using physical paper. (!!)

Checking the page before, at the bottom, tells us that John and Cornelia were living in Dwelling #499, that of the Innkeeper Jack Elliot. “Tavern” appears written in under family number after Jack is listed as the head of Family #499. It appears that Jack was living with his wife and children of 7, 10, 5, and, if we go back to the page with John and Cornelia, a 2 year old and a child 4/12, or 4 months, old.

The couple listed after Cornelia could be married or siblings since they have the same last name, and he is a minister of the MEC (Methodist Episcopal Church). There is also a merchant listed as living at the inn, and a bar keeper- he probably works at the bar at the inn/tavern. (There are other entries on nearby pages with a bar keeper living at an inn.)

The 1850 census doesn’t give us all the information we might like, but it does state that John was a lawyer, and both he and Cornelia were born in Virginia. There is another lawyer listed on the page, living in his own home with his wife and family. Another minister (of the Baptist Church?) rounds out the jobs requiring college education, with the rest of the residents having honest trades like carpenter, wheelwright, “Taylor,” blacksmith, and farmer. All were born in Virginia except for the minister living at the inn, and two of the children attended school. There are tick marks for them in the column for “over 20 and cannot read nor write” but those boys are just ten and six years old, so likely those were some sort of check mark for the computation that was done, as we see a similar mark by “Pennsylvania” where the Methodist minister was born.

No “value of real estate owned” is listed for John C. Murrell, but there is none listed for the remaining adults at the inn, and that is likely why they live at the inn.

Analyzing the columns carefully when we first looked at this census was important. When we found that the dwelling and family information was missing, we had a hint- we needed to check around to learn more about the family. Seeing that John and Cornelia were living in an inn with other professional people tells us a bit about the newlyweds, just getting started in their life together. How sweet! And we would not have known any of this, if we had missed that two boxes were empty on this census.

 

Notes, Sources, and References: 

 

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