Are you having difficulty tracing someone in New York City in the early nineteenth century? Maybe city census records will help. Digitized images are available from the New York City Municipal Archives.
Beginning in 1795 and for several subsequent years through 1829, a "census of the Inhabitants" was taken to determine "an accurate list of Jurors qualified to serve in the different Courts." Few of these censuses seem to have survived, but portions do for 1816 (wards 1-3, 5, 8, 10) and 1819 (wards 1, 2, 4-6, 8-10). In addition, several statewide electoral censuses were taken between 1790 and 1821 to provide a basis for reapportioning Senate and Assembly districts. For New York City, part of the 1821 electoral census survives (wards 1, 2, 5-7, 9).
The censuses, on printed forms, contain information of great genealogical and historical value. For 1816 and 1819 were listed name; number and street of residence; occupation; freeholder of $150; personal estate of $150; age; reason for exemption from jury [see below]; total number of jurors [in the household]; number of inhabitants, broken down by sex and white, alien, and colored persons not slaves; slaves; freeholders of £100 and upwards; freeholders of £20 and under £100; tenants renting at $5 a year; total number of inhabitants; and remarks.
Although not eligible to serve on juries, women are frequently listed in these censuses. Examples of others exempt from jury duty include persons of color, aliens, the very old, those in the military, journeymen, firemen, and professionals (such as attorneys).
The 1821 electoral census returns list the name of head of each family; number and street of residence; and number of males eligible to vote, recorded in four different columns depending on basis of eligibility. Other columns give number of improved acres and counts of cattle, horses, sheep, yards of manufactured cloth, mills, factories, distilleries, asheries, and machinery.
For more detail, see Minutes of the Common Council of the City of New York 1784-1831 (31 vols., 1917, 1930) 8:411-12, 511, 523, 532, 548 (for 1816); 10:397, 622 (for 1819); and 11:589, 681, 12:40 (for 1821*). For 1821 also see Rosalie Fellows Bailey, Guide to Genealogical and Biographical Sources for New York City (Manhattan) 1783-1898 (1954), p. 37; and Marilyn Douglas and Melinda Yates, New York State Census Records 1790-1925 (Albany: N.Y. State Library, Bibliography Bulletin 88,1981), p. 22.
* The Minutes of the Common Council for 1821 show that a list of Jurors was compiled at the same time the census was taken. It apparently has not survived. The census form was designed to include juror data but was not so used (the "No. of Jurors" column contains house numbers).
by Roger D. Joslyn, CG, FASG, FGBS
Originally published in The NYG&B Newsletter, Winter 1992
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