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The 1850 Madison Co, AR Census was transcribed 1996-1999 by Combs Researcher C. Hammett. Transcription Last Updated 3/4/1999. A straight text file is also available: ar-mad50.txt. This file is still in the process of being "final-proofed" by other researchers (see below).

Transcriber Notes: Transcription of this his file originally completed 2-21-1999 with the following exceptions:

  1. Page numbers, dates and name of enumerator have only been transcribed for the first page of each township (although we're working on adding those).
  2. School attendance has not been transcribed except in a few instances, in some cases as “attended school”, in others signified by a + (plus).
  3. Dwellings vs. Families: In 1850, the Census Enumerator was to number each Dwelling in the order visited (1st column) and each Family in the order visited (Column 2). Thus, the Family Numbers might exceed considerably the Dwelling Numbers. For all of Madison County, however, the Dwelling Number and Family Number were the same; thus only one number was listed by the transcriber.
  4. Overall statistics (page 284) not yet transcribed.

Reminder!

  1. The 1850 US Census did not include relationships of individuals within households. At best those can only be presumed barring additional records; as a general rule of thumb, however, when individuals are found in a household listed "out of age order," it may signal that the individual is not the wife, child, etc. of the head of household.
  2. Census enumerators were human - they made errors.
  3. Sometimes the errors were those of the interviewee, the individual in the household who gave the data to the enumerator.
  4. The result is: One census record does not a family make!

Note: Illiteracy among adults in Madison Co AR was not uncommon as most were reared on the frontier. Whether children attended school or not generally depended on whether a school and a schoolteacher were available. It appears, based on this census, that when a school was available, most children attended.

Important! This transcription has been compared to three other transcriptions (two of them published), but has never actually been "proofed." Volunteers are welcome, and should email the Madison Co, AR Research List at: armadiso-l@rootsweb.com. Also note that all annotations should be accompanied by sources. See Also Combs &c. Families of Madison Co, AR.