What is the census city

+3 votes
346 views

When a census doesn't list a city and just a precinct #, is there a database that helps us know where that precinct was located?

Here are two examples I'm looking at now: 

I know those specific records are likely either Kennard or Ratcliff, Texas but I'm not sure how i know for sure.  

And I have others I've seen not in this specific precinct. Just trying to figure out where they are exactly located within the county.

in Genealogy Help by Micah Horgan-Trapp G2G6 Mach 2 (26.2k points)
edited by Micah Horgan-Trapp
Both your examples state the city.

United States Census, 1940 https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KW2C-3TG = Justice Precinct 3, Kennard Township, Houston, Texas, United States

United States Census, 1910 https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MK1P-5JP = Justice Precinct 3, Houston, Texas, United States
This is the county of Houston...not the city.  I'm not seeing the city listed anywhere
I just edited in the Township name for 1940.
oh you're right...I did miss it in the 1940 one. Thank you.  

Any ideas about the 1910 one?
No.  I thought it was there, but it just says "part of", which isn't a town/city name.  (Unless someone has a worse sense of humour than mine!)
I can't find Justice Precinct 3 at all for 1910.  Lots of results for Harris County, but not for Houston County.

Have you considered giving someone in Precinct 1 or 2 a phone call and asking?
Thanks Melanie. I know that precinct maps can change year to year, so I wasn't sure who to call. I can look into calling the current precincts.

I was hoping there would be some type of database available that might show precinct districts for each year.

Appreciate the help.

I looked, hoping for a 1920 census and found nothing.  1935 he was living in the same place as 1940.  Because he was in Waco in 1930, I couldn't presume he was in Houstin County (whatever the precinct), or in Waco, in 1920.

If the current folk can't help with those boundaries from back then, you might just have to note he was enumerated as living in "part of" that particular precinct. 
Or we could start a movement to name some place "Partof".  cheeky

Yeah I've been on the hunt for his 1920 census for a long time. Bill Smitherman is one of my big mystery people: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Smitherman-184

I really appreciate the help.

2 Answers

+4 votes

Hi, Micah. Sometimes the supplement abstracts for a given U.S. census can give you a clue (here's the one for Texas in 1910; Houston County is on PDF page 18; physical document page 583) but not in this case. I'll always scan forward and back among the images to see if I can find one that provides either a post office that serves the area or a street name, but neither seem to be readily available here in near-numbered pages.

Then we have to resort to options that may not be as easy to locate. What we can tell is that Houston County was enumerated with 8 precincts that year, with the town of Crockett in Precinct 1. Precinct 3 was subdivided into four enumeration districts, numbers 65 through 68. Our census entry in question was in ED 68...though that may or may not not help us to narrow things down.

Next stop is this collection at FamilySearch: "United States Enumeration District Maps for the Twelfth through the Sixteenth US Censuses, 1900-1940." Images. FamilySearch. https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2329948 : 9 February 2023. Citing NARA microfilm publication A3378. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2003.

But...it isn't indexed and searchable. So creative browsing comes into play.

Without too much tedium, we can locate the 1910 precinct map for Houston County. It gives us a perspective, but doesn't subdivide things into the enumeration districts, which would have helped a lot. I've made the map available to you at this link.

Precinct 3 looks like it includes Kennard (and possibly up to Hagervile), stretches west and may include Daniel, and may or may not extend south to include Arbor. Enumeration districts 70, 71, and 72 are shown on the map, but not 65 through 68.

The enumerations in Precinct 3 began in mid-April in ED 65, which is noted as being on or bounded by the "Crockett and Collard Road" (which may reference the historic site of the James Collard general store; I don't know). The enumerator(s) look to have moved sequentially by date through mid-May and numerically by ED, with our sheet 2A enumerated April 27, and the last ones in ED 68 on the 19th and 20th of May.

I'm afraid that's as close as I can get ya, but at least we found the ballpark! laugh

by Edison Williams G2G6 Pilot (505k points)
This is great! Thank you so much.

Where were you able to find the 1910 precinct map?

You're welcome. That link I included at FamilySearch has precinct maps, where they existed, for the 1900 through 1940 U.S. census publications. You need to "Browse All 63,619 Images"...not as bad as it sounds. From there, you'll locate the state and county of interest alphabetically (in this case, it's "Roll 63, Texas, Hale-La Salle 1900-1940"), and then just do some creative browsing by jumping around via page numbers to narrow in on the county and year you're after. It's alphabetical by county, then numerical by year, oldest to newest. Big counties with multiple large towns will have several pages just to themselves.

But Steven went one better with the enumeration district boundary description. Still doesn't provide a town or post office name for the exact location, but zeros you in to within a few miles.

+3 votes

Your are better off using the Enumeration District (ED) when trying to locate the location of a residence.  There is a nice tool for doing this at https://stevemorse.org/census/reelframes.html?year=1910&state=TX&county=houston&ed=68   

The particular census page that you want for 1910 is in ED.68 and has a description as follows:  

Pct 3 (pt), all south of the Crockett and Coltharpe public road to the Eastern Texas RR track at the town of Kennard and to the Kennard and Coltharpe and Hagerville public road, and all west of said public road to the county line.

by Steven Beckler G2G6 Mach 3 (33.3k points)

Here's a map for the 1940 census ED.113-14

https://catalog.archives.gov/id/5839787?objectPage=7

Thank you so much for sharing that resource!

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