Schuyler County, Illinois, 1850 Census Records

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The 1850 Schuyler County Illinois census was enumerated 19 August 1850 to 16 November 1850 by Marshall L. Lusk. As with all early census, the Marshall would attempt contact with each known resident within each division. Since L. Lusk travelled to different parts of the county at different times over the 3 month process, it is possible that some new residents were missed, say, who moved into Rushville after 23 August. By all appearances these individuals were missed in the census. It is also possible in more rural areas that the marshal was not familiar with all the locations of the rural homesteads, and would miss some – though it appears that Marshal Lusk was quite diligent in his attempts.

This was the first census to enumerate every member of a household whether family or not. Do not assume that all residents of a household were related. With children, special care needs to be taken in identifying the head of household and wife as the legitimate parents. Often, mixed families (spouses having more than one marriage) had the children listed in age order, regardless of parentage. The last name of the step-children was often assigned by the surname of the head of household.

The 1850 Census Guide at AccessGenealogy goes into more detail about the information that can be found in the 1850 census, the instructions to the Asst Marshal’s, and most especially, pay attention to the Genealogy Strategy for the 1850 Census.

This Census was transcribed by Carol L. Wolf Britton and proofread by Bertram Britton Jr. in 1999. Thanks to both of them for taking time to do this!