Wednesday, March 21, 2012

What's a Beat?

Givens_family

What's a beat?  When researching your ancestors in the census, you are apt to come across the physical location terminology, "beat". 

We are familiar with the "cop's beat" and we have a general idea of what is being referred to.  Is a census "beat" the same thing?

To get an intelligent or a more in-depth explanation/answer, I went first to the Free Census Project of USGenWeb.  Under the heading of Subdistricts and Enumeration Districts we find that different terms were used when the boundaries of the the county were indistinct or before they were even designated. 

Boundaries of towns and other minor civil divisions, and in some cases of counties were ill defined, so enumerators were frequently uncertain whether a family resided in their own or an adjoining district. For this reason, it is not unusual to find individuals and families listed twice in the census and others missed entirely."

And again:

In a few states and territories, such as Arizona, Louisiana, Orleans, South Carolina, and others, the county divisions have been known by other names. In other places in some years, counties have not existed or have not been used, so other means of dividing up the state or territory have been used. Common examples of these names are Beat, Division, Judicial District, District, etc.

 
And at another Internet source, we can review the instructions that were given to enumerators/census takers; it's a little lengthy, but since this was the 1880 Census and since the processes were of a federal nature, we will cite the whole paragraph:

The supervisor of census is by law charged with the following duties:

First. To propose to the Superintendent of the Census the apportionment of his district into subdivisions most convenient for the purpose of enumeration. These subdivisions are not allowed by law to exceed 4,000 inhabitants, according to the census of 1870, and can be made as much smaller as the good of the service may require. Administratively, the census office has favored the plan of small subdivisions; and of the 15,000 subdivisions reported up to the present date, the average estimate of population is not in excess of 2,000. Generally speaking, each existing civil division, whether a town, township, military district, "beat," or precinct, has been constituted one or more enumeration districts. In comparatively few cases two townships or more, of small population, have been constituted one enumeration district. It is anticipated that the total number of enumeration districts for all the States and Territories will be closely in the neighborhood of 28,000.

 
We know that initially, the Enumeration District, and knowing which one to look at for our relatives, will become indispensable in searching the 1940 Census, but what about the Beat, the Beat, the Beat; are we any closer to knowing what it designates?  Chime in, will you, if you have any info on this!

 

Posted via email from Margaret's posterous

Saturday, March 03, 2012

Valparaiso Community Library

Valp_library

http://www.fl-genweb.org/waok/okaloosa/valp-lib.htm
Excellent article with photos of the Valparaiso Community Library, describes it as a "superb resource" for history and genealogy research. 

Posted via email from Margaret's posterous