Mortality Schedule – Census Quick Reference Chart

The Mortality Schedule – Census Quick Reference Chart sets the surviving mortality schedules of 1850 to 1900 against the questions genealogists most often bring to them, and marks for each year whether that year's schedule answers a question directly, gives clues to it, or doesn't cover it.

Each census from 1850 to 1900 included a mortality schedule, a separate list of everyone in a household who had died in the twelve months before the census day, from June 1st of the year before through May 31st of the census year. The enumerator took it during the same visits as the population schedule, household by household and in the same order, so a death sits on the page in step with the household it came from. In 1870 the enumerator could also add deaths found in official records that the visits had missed, so some entries came from a register rather than from the household. The schedules are filed apart from the population schedules, and for some states they are held by the state archives rather than the National Archives.

For a genealogist, a mortality schedule mostly stands in for a death record from a time when few existed. Most states didn't keep statewide death records until the early 1900s, so for many people who died between 1850 and 1880, the only other record of the death is a church register, a family Bible, or a gravestone, if one survives. A mortality schedule can be the one government record that says this person died, about when, and of what.

The Line by Line cards give more information about each determination and how it applies to the question.

Explicit — The source asked the question, and the answer is given directly.

Inferred — The source didn't ask the question, but the answer can be narrowed down or figured out from the information available. Confirming an inference often needs another record. The inference can sometimes require more than one record, but this determination is only used where the information usually can't be found any other way.

Not Recorded — The source didn't ask the question, and nothing in it helps answer it.

Not Applicable — The question doesn't apply to anyone at the time the record was taken.

Rarely Available — The source can only answer the question for a small share of people.

The 1890 and 1900 mortality schedules were taken along with the population schedules. In March 1896, after fire had damaged them, the 1890 schedules were destroyed by order of the Department of the Interior, together with that census's other special schedules. The 1900 schedules were ordered destroyed once their statistics had been compiled. A copy of Minnesota's 1900 schedule was later found at the Minnesota Historical Society and was published in 1992; no other is known to survive.

The month of death places the year. Each schedule covers the twelve months from June 1st of the year before through May 31st of the census year, so a death in June through December fell in the year before the census, and one in January through May fell in the census year itself. On the 1850 schedule, a March death is March 1850, and an August death is August 1849.

The month of death is the most exact date the schedules hold.

None of the schedules from 1850 to 1880 asks the day of death; the month is as exact as they get.

Beyond this chart — A day can come from a death notice in a local newspaper, a church burial register or a gravestone; the schedule's month and county narrow where and when to look. Many historical newspapers can be searched by name in the Library of Congress's Chronicling America, which also lists where papers not yet digitized are held.

The disease or cause of death is given in the words of whoever reported it. Those words are the terms of their time, and many name a symptom rather than a disease as it would be diagnosed today: consumption, for example, usually meant tuberculosis. Enumerators sometimes added more about a death, often an accident, in the remarks at the bottom of the page.

Beyond this chart — An accident or sudden death was often reported in the local newspaper, sometimes in more detail than the schedule gives; the month of death narrows which issues to search. Many historical newspapers can be searched by name in the Library of Congress's Chronicling America, which also lists where papers not yet digitized are held.

The 1850 and 1860 schedules give the number of days each person had been ill before death. A short timespan fits an accident or a sudden disease; a long one, a chronic condition. The 1870 and 1880 schedules don't ask this question.

The 1880 schedule asks where the disease was contracted, if that was somewhere other than the place of death; it is the only schedule to ask. A place named here might suggest that a person had been living or traveling elsewhere shortly before death.

The 1880 schedule gives the name of the attending physician, where there was one; the earlier schedules have no such column.

Beyond this chart — A physician's own account books or case records, where they survive, are usually held by libraries, historical societies and university archives, and catalogs of archival collections can show where, such as OCLC's ArchiveGrid. The American Medical Association kept biographical cards on many doctors who died from 1864 to 1968, which can tell more about the physician; they can be searched on FamilySearch as the Deceased Physician File.

Several deaths from the same cause, in the same months and in one place, can signal an epidemic or outbreak on the 1850 through 1880 schedules. Reading the cause and month columns together, down a page and across neighboring pages, brings such a cluster to light. A contagious illness can also take several members of one household; see Find others who died in the same household?.

The 1850 and 1860 schedules list each household's deaths together, in the order the households were visited, but with no family number, so a group of entries is linked to its household by working from the population schedule; see Connect to family in the population schedule?. The 1870 and 1880 schedules give each death its household's family number, and entries that share one belong to the same household. Several deaths in one household within a few months may suggest an illness that passed among its members, and a mother who died in childbirth may be listed with her infant.

The schedules list the deaths each household reported, whether or not any other record of them was made, including people who appear on no population schedule because they were born after one census and died before the next. Where no death certificate, church register, or gravestone survives, the entry may be the only evidence of the death; see What is a mortality schedule?. In 1870 the enumerator could also add deaths found in official records that the visits had missed, so some entries that year come from a record that existed elsewhere.

The mortality schedules list infants and young children with everyone else, giving age, sex, and cause of death. A child under a year old is usually given an age in months, often written as a fraction of a year ("3/12" for three months). Children who were born after one census and lost before the next appear on no population schedule; see Find a missing child?. An entry can be matched to the family on the population schedule; see Connect to family in the population schedule?.

Each schedule from 1850 to 1880 names each person reported as having died during the census year, one to a line, in the order their households were visited. Enslaved people who died in 1850 and 1860 are listed too, and in 1850 the names given for them vary: some appear by full name, some by first name only, and some beside the slaveholder's name.

The schedules ask each person's age, sex, and color. The age is the one reported by whoever answered for the household, so it can differ from other records of the same person by a year or more. Color is given in the terms of its year: white, black, or mulatto in 1850 and 1860, with Chinese and Indian added in 1870 and 1880, as on the population schedules. Together the three tie an entry to the right person on the population schedule, especially when the name is only a first name or an initial.

None of the schedules asks when a person was born, but the age and the year of death give one: subtracting the age from that year gives a birth year that can be off by one, depending on whether the birthday fell before or after the death. That year is worked out from the month; see Ascertain year of death?.

The 1850 and 1860 schedules have a column headed "Free or slave": the 1850 instructions told the enumerator to leave it blank for a free person and mark an "S" for an enslaved one. Free and enslaved people are listed on the same page, which the population schedule doesn't do, since it lists free people only. Slavery was abolished in 1865, so the question doesn't apply afterward.

Neither the 1850 nor the 1860 schedule asks who held an enslaved person, but the slaveholder can often be narrowed down from where the entry sits. The mortality schedule follows the population schedule's order and enslaved people are listed among the free. The nearest free person listed before the entry, and the nearest after it, can each be matched to a household on the population schedule: the slaveholder is the first of those households or one visited between the two. That doesn't always settle on a single family, but it narrows the search to a short list of candidates. In 1850 some enumerators also wrote the slaveholder's name beside the entry. The question ends with slavery in 1865.

A profession, occupation, or trade is given wherever one was reported, in the same terms the population schedules used. An occupation can tell apart two people of the same name and age. For someone who appears on no population schedule, it may be all that recorded their work.

The 1850 and 1860 schedules have no family number, but they were taken in the same order as the population schedule. The nearest entries before and after the person whose households can be identified on the population schedule mark where the family sits: it is the first of those households or one visited between the two. That doesn't always settle on a single family, but it narrows the search to a short list of candidates, and matching surname, ages, and birthplaces often settles it. The 1870 and 1880 schedules give each death the family number of its household from the population schedule, which ties the entry directly to that family.

The 1850, 1860, and 1870 schedules have a column for "married or widowed," filled only for a person who had been married: "M" for someone whose husband or wife survived them, "W" for someone whose husband or wife had died first. A blank usually means the person was single, though not necessarily never married, and it can also mean the answer wasn't available from the source the enumerator used. In 1850 and 1860 the instructions also had the column left blank for enslaved people, whatever their marriage. The 1880 schedule asks marital status directly, as that year's population schedule did: single, married, widowed, or divorced, the last marking a marriage that had ended and the spouse may or may not still have been living.

A child born after one census and lost before the next appears on no population schedule, so the mortality schedule may be the only federal record that the child existed. The child can be matched to a family on the population schedule; see Connect to family in the population schedule?. The 1890, 1900, and 1910 population schedules also asked each mother how many children she had borne and how many were still living, which shows whether she had lost any.

The place of birth is given for each person: the state or territory for someone born in the United States, the country for someone born abroad. As on the population schedule, the town or county of birth is almost never given.

In 1850 and 1860, the parents' birthplaces can come from the population schedule: when a death can be tied to the parents' household, their own entries there give them; see Connect to family in the population schedule?. The 1870 schedule has two columns marking whether each person's father and mother were of foreign birth, which shows that a parent was born abroad but not where. The 1880 schedule asks where each person's father and mother were born: the state for a parent born in the United States, the country for one born abroad. It can name the birthplaces of parents who appear in no census themselves.

The state, county, and town or township are named at the top of each page, and each person is listed where they lived, which wasn't always where they died. The 1880 schedule also asks how long each person had lived in the county; a short residence hints at a recent move, and where to look for the family in the census before.

An identifier for a specific form. The same identifier goes on every page of the form, so pages that become separated can be put back together, and another form can refer to it.

The prefix is unique to each type of form. The rest, up to four characters, is chosen by the researcher and can be numbers, letters, or both. Combining letters with numbers allows more forms to be referenced with fewer characters. Each Quick Reference chart carries a fixed identifier instead, such as "QRC-C2", which names the chart itself and has nothing to fill in.

National Archives (NARA) — archives.gov

U.S. Census Bureau — census.gov

IPUMS USA — usa.ipums.org

Library of Congress — loc.gov

National Library of Medicine — nlm.nih.gov

FamilySearch — familysearch.org

Genealogical Forum of Oregon — gfo.org