The census of 1810 occurred one year after Illinois became a separate territory from the Indiana Territory. The census of 1818 was taken to substantiate the claim that Illinois had sufficient population to be given statehood. "Until the publication of the present volume there has been no compilation of early census schedules for Illinois. Although disappointing in that biographical and genealogical data concerning the early settlers are not given in these census records, they are valuable not only for the sentimental reason that they preserve the names of hundreds of pioneers otherwise forgotten, but also as providing the basis for studies in population movement in the United States." The population of Illinois increased between forty and fifty per cent in the two and a half years between taking the first census in June, 1818, and the enumeration returned in December, 1820. Discrepancies between the state and the federal census of 1820 show the mobility of the settlers. "This constant shifting about makes all population statistics very unreliable, but it adds interest to a study of the names themselves." The census specified the following form: Names of heads of families; Free white males, twenty-one years and upwards; All other white inhabitants; Free people of color; and Servants or slaves. This volume also includes two fullname indices, one for the 1810 census and one for the 1818 census.
Margaret Cross Norton
(1935), 2007, CD-ROM, Graphic Images, Searchable, Adobe Acrobat v6, PC or Mac, 370 pp.
ISBN: 9780788444630
101-CD4463
