1850 US Census - Tamaqua
Source: The 1850 census was
reviewed by Newt Bugbee at the
Pottsville Public Library in March of 1998. (The census records were not
available at the Dimmick Library in Mauch Chunk or at the Tamaqua Library or
Tamaqua Historical Society. Pottsville had records beginning with the 1840
census.) The 1850 census is broken down by town and is indexed on the box (Box
827). Tamaqua is covered on Pages 223 – 262. The record containing Hopkin
Thomas is on Page 223.
The form
indicates that the survey was performed in August, 1850 – the date may be
the 29th, but is barely legible.
The column
headings are
1. Dwelling houses numbered in order of
visitation.
2. Families numbered in the order of visitation.
3. Name.
4. Age.
5. Sex.
6. Color (white, black, or mulatto.
7. Occupation/profession of males over 30.
8. Value of real estate ownership.
9. Place of birth.
10. Married within the year.
11. Attended school within the year.
12. Persons over 30 who cannot read &
write.
13. Deaf, dumb, blind or otherwise impaired.
The Thomas
family is entered on Line 33, near the bottom of the image:
Hopkin
(60) Machinist Wales
Catherine
(46) Wales
Helen
(17) Wales
James
(13) Pa.
Catherine
(8) Pa.
Note that HopkinÕs age is incorrect
– he would have been 57 at that time. William Richards Thomas, Hopkin and CatherineÕs oldest child
(21) was learning the machinist trade at the B.M.R.R. shops in Weatherly and
undoubtedly did not move to Tamaqua with the family. Mary (19), now the wife of
James Harper McKee had given birth to their first child in February, 1849 and was living with her parents at this
time as her husband sought to establish their new home in Jersey City, NJ, but
Mary was not considered a resident of Tamaqua and was not listed in the census.
There is no entry in Col. 8 – real
estate value, whereas a value is entered for other families. Was Hopkin renting
or was the form incomplete?
If the enumeration was conducted by a house-to-house survey, then it may be that the names of the others on the page could be used to locate the street where Hopkin lived. An unusual aspect of this page is that more than a few identified themselves as engineers or machinists. Family #1 was comprised of two males, ages 22 and 24, both mechanical engineers from Wales. The name of the first is illegible; the second is John Williams. Family #8 is headed by a 21-year old who is designated a Fireman or Engineer. Family #9 is Hopkin Thomas, machinist. Family #10 – Walter Jones, 63, Mechanical Engineer from Wales.
The image below is a scan of a copy made from microfilm. The image is a composite of two images – not quite the same magnification was used. The quality is poor – very common for microfilmed records.
About The Hopkin Thomas Project
Rev. August
2010