Lost Census: Arundal, Maine, 1810

Date: 1810 to 1810
Location: Arundel, Maine
Surnames/tags: Noble Blunt

Arundel Maine, 1810: The Mystery of the Missing B's

By J. Miller

TWO PAGES ARE MISSING [1] [2] from the 1810 U.S. Census for Arundel (now Kennebunkport), Maine, as carried in the National Archives microfilm series (M252, Roll 12) and reproduced by the online services Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org, etc.

These are effectively lost, since not present in the sources that everyone uses to access the Census. They were found while researching the life of Andrew Noble (1796-1865). He was a nephew of James Blunt who later purchased property for him in Alfred, ME. The male 10-15 in Blunt's household (5th line, here) was probably Andrew.

The pages are included in the photostatic copy of the returns, held at the Archives in Washington (for the 1800 through 1830 Censuses). See U.S. Census 1810, vol. 6, Maine, pp. 170 and 171 (Record Group 29.8.1).

The missing pages are stamped 870 and (partially visible) 871. The pages for Arundel on the microfilm skip from 869 to 872, and from Silas Abbot to Nathl Currier, skipping all B's.

The B's cataloged for Arundel on Ancestry.com (along with a couple of A's) are in fact entries for Biddeford, e.g., Batchelder Bunker. The Biddeford entries run continuously from the last Arundel entries.

Photos by JTM, 5/21/09.