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- 1885 RI State Census:
Obtained 30 July 1998 by Eugene F. VOGT at the RI State Archives, 337 Westminster Street, Providence RI 02903, (401) 277 2353
Ellen Christine OLIVER's birth was not officially recorded anywhere in RI that I could find. First I looked in the chronological births by city/town - nothing in Newport for 6 months on either side of 11 April 1885. then I scanned +/- a month in all the cities and towns in RI (not that many - maybe 25?). Nothing.
Then I went to the 20-year birth indexes (1874-1894) and looked for WILSON, OLIVER, VANDERBILT, ASTOR, JOHNSON, JOHANSON, all nothing. Then I looked at the DELAYED BIRTH records for the same names and scanned them all for an April 1885 date for anyone. Nothing.
BUT.....
After spending the rest of the entire day combing the 1885 RI State census for Newport, I found them.
The 1885 census commenced on 1 June, and completed sometime (2 months? 4 months?) after that date. The summaries are hand-written in a big ledger book, one person per line. The organization of the census summaries (original ledgers apparently no longer exist) is bizarre. First they are sorted by town, then by wards if there are any (Newport has 5), then by male or female. Then, as far as I can tell, all the surnames beginning with a particular letter are generally ordered by age. There were lots of exceptions to this rule, but the exceptions were never very far out of place from where you would expect them to be by following this rule. So all the males with a surname beginning with "A" were ordered by age, then all the males with a surname beginning with "B", etc etc etc, then the females following the same logic. The net result of this silliness is that even members of the same family with the same surname living in the same house are scattered all over the particular ward section of the book. And if there is more than one surname, the problem compounds.
Because I could not trust that I would find infant or mother under the name of WILSON (in fact, I cruised the female W's in each ward first and didn't see anything), on a page by page basis I scanned the CHRISTIAN NAME column for something that looked like Wilhelmina, then I scanned the BIRTHPLACE column for "Sweden," then I scanned the AGE column for a fractional age. Page after page after page.....
At first I used the microfilm copy of the census summaries for Newport, but they only had three microfilm readers and soon there were a couple of people waiting, so I was a good doo-bee and gave up my machine after an hour or so, so someone else could have a turn, planning to go back to it when the line dissipated.
I guess giving up your machine voluntarily is not something they are used to having people do there, because the archivist came to my table a few minutes later with the ORIGINAL summaries in a giant book - the thing the microfilm was made from.
I continued my search with the book, and on the next to last page of the entire book (Ward 5 - in the W's), I finally found the following listing:
DISTRICT NUMBER: 207
FAMILY NUMBER: 14
NUMBER IN FAMILY: 7
SURNAME: Wilson
CHRISTIAN NAME: Ellen Christine
SEX: F
RELATION TO HEAD OF HOUSEHOLD: Boarder
COLOR/RACE: W
AGE: 3/12 (i.e., 3 months)
CONJUGAL CONDITION: S
PLACE OF BIRTH: Newport
PARENTAGE: Sweden
etc etc etc
The fractional age is what caught my eye first.
The friendly staff-person explained that based on the first 3 fields, we could know that there were six other people listed somewhere in ward 5 as being part of family #14 from District #207. I scanned backwards through the female W's and found Wilhelmina - listed as "Mina":
DISTRICT NUMBER: 207
FAMILY NUMBER: 14
NUMBER IN FAMILY: 7
SURNAME: Wilson
CHRISTIAN NAME: Mina
SEX: F
RELATION TO HEAD OF HOUSEHOLD: Servant
COLOR/RACE: W
AGE: 22
CONJUGAL CONDITION: S
PLACE OF BIRTH: Sweden
PARENTAGE: Sweden
So now my quest was to find who the five other people were. I had to go through males and females in ward 5 TWICE to find them, and I didn't believe who it was at first:
DISTRICT NUMBER: 207
FAMILY NUMBER: 14
NUMBER IN FAMILY: 7
SURNAME: Nordquist
CHRISTIAN NAME: Andrew
SEX: M
RELATION TO HEAD OF HOUSEHOLD: Head
COLOR/RACE: W
AGE: 37
CONJUGAL CONDITION: M
PLACE OF BIRTH: Sweden
PARENTAGE: Sweden
DISTRICT NUMBER: 207
FAMILY NUMBER: 14
NUMBER IN FAMILY: 7
SURNAME: Nordquist
CHRISTIAN NAME: Mary Eliza
SEX: F
RELATION TO HEAD OF HOUSEHOLD: Wife
COLOR/RACE: W
AGE: 38
CONJUGAL CONDITION: M
PLACE OF BIRTH: Sweden
PARENTAGE: Sweden
DISTRICT NUMBER: 207
FAMILY NUMBER: 14
NUMBER IN FAMILY: 7
SURNAME: Nordquist
CHRISTIAN NAME: Charlie
SEX: M
RELATION TO HEAD OF HOUSEHOLD: Son
COLOR/RACE: W
AGE: 14
CONJUGAL CONDITION: S
PLACE OF BIRTH: Sweden
PARENTAGE: Sweden
DISTRICT NUMBER: 207
FAMILY NUMBER: 14
NUMBER IN FAMILY: 7
SURNAME: Nordquist
CHRISTIAN NAME: Annie Elizabeth
SEX: F
RELATION TO HEAD OF HOUSEHOLD: Daughter
COLOR/RACE: W
AGE: 11
CONJUGAL CONDITION: S
PLACE OF BIRTH: Sweden
PARENTAGE: Sweden
DISTRICT NUMBER: 207
FAMILY NUMBER: 14
NUMBER IN FAMILY: 7
SURNAME: Nordquist
CHRISTIAN NAME: Christianne
SEX: F
RELATION TO HEAD OF HOUSEHOLD: Daughter
COLOR/RACE: W
AGE: 6
CONJUGAL CONDITION: S
PLACE OF BIRTH: Sweden
PARENTAGE: Sweden
Daughter Annie Elizabeth NORDQUIST was the first wife of Ellen Christine's eventual first husband, Lucien Eugene VOGT.
See ®057 for 1900 US census info on the family.
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