Saturday, February 2, 2008

Federal Census for 1800 Scipio

I am posting here the third page of the 1800 Federal Census for the Town of Scipio, in the County of Cayuga, State of NY.
It is a challenge to read these names, with the differences in handwriting over 208 years, as well as the unfamiliar names popular at the time. And of course, the spellings depend on what the census taker believed was accurate.
One name found on this page is almost certainly a variant on the DURKEE name. The Durkee family was active in Scipio government in the earlier years. The name of Wilkes Durkee (as well as other Durkee family members) is found in the Town Meeting books from 1799 and on, so we know they lived in Scipio at the time of the 1800 census.
On this third page, the name Wilks DURGIE is almost certainly referring to Wilkes Durkee.
Here's the list:

Joshua Patrick
Benjamin Patrick
Joseph Barnett
Timothy Wheeler
Robert Parks
Miriam Phelps
Benjamin Cole
Josiah Phelps
Siniri (?) Phelps
Isaac Wardell
Leonard Adams
Jonah Barlow
Henry Stringham
Andrea Durgie
Wilks Durgie
Victory L. Fowler
Scott Fowler
Elisha Hunter
Joseph Seeley
Theophilus Allen
Hollibert Wilcox
Russekey (?) Lyon
Tobey Green
William Barber
Reuben Stephens
Jonathan Hastings

1 comment:

Roger A. Post said...

Sandie, I transcribed the 1800 Cayuga Co. federal census a few years back. It is available here:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~cenfiles/ny/cayuga/1800/

Scipio falls within the files labeled pg594.txt and pg634.txt.

I also had a great deal of trouble reading the old handwriting from images on a CD. The original appeared to be full of holes, and the alignment between the left and right-hand pages was difficult to determine. Maybe you are working from a copy of higher quality, but you may want to compare notes with what I came up with when you encounter the worst of the hen scratches!