Family History-Part 46

Discovering the Health Conditions and Disabilities of Your Ancestors in U.S. Census Records

by Brenna Corbit, Technical Services Librarian

Last month, I was working on a Berks County Wentzel line, a Benjamin Wentzel who died in 1902. His obituary states he left a widow “who is blind and confined to bed for some time.” Knowing that some enumeration years had columns to indicate a person’s state of health or disability, I went back to the 1900 U.S. Census and discovered that there were no such columns. However, I did notice a “B” written in the right-hand margin next to his wife Sarah in line 18. 

I started browsing other 1900 census schedules and saw these Bs popping up every so often. I also saw occasional Ds, DDs, BDs, and BDDs appearing in the right margin. Turning to the 1900 census enumerator instructions, I discovered a reference to a special schedule, Form 7-442 Special Schedule for Persons Defective in Sight, Hearing, or Speech.

According to Appendix A in Deaf Mutes in the United States: Analysis of the Census of 1910, Form 7-442 instructed enumerators to mark in the far right margin on the 1900 U.S. Census the aforementioned abbreviations for persons who are blind, deaf, dumb, deaf and dumb, etc. This supplemental form required more detail about a person’s disability, such as whether the disability was congenital or a later development, whether the parents were first cousins, or if caused by an accident.

I am still searching for the availability of this supplemental form from 1900. They are not only valuable for knowing about an ancestor’s full life story, but for the purpose of learning of a genetic defect that may be of use for future prevention.

So far I have not discovered any other extraneous cryptic abbreviations for disabilities, but I have noted below, the separate columns with health and disability questions in other U. S. Census records. Keep in mind that, in the past, some terms for disabilities were not very flattering.

• 1850 to 1870—“Whether deaf and dumb, blind, insane, idiotic, pauper, or convict.”
• 1880—Several health questions: “Is the person (on the day of the enumerator’s visit) sick or temporarily disabled, so as to be unable to attend to ordinary business or duties? If so, what is the sickness or disability?” and separate columns for each: “Health—Blind—Deaf and Dumb—Idiotic—Maimed, crippled, bedridden, or otherwise disabled.”
• 1890—“Whether suffering from acute or chronic disease, with name of disease and length of time afflicted—Whether defective in mind, sight, hearing, or speech, or whether crippled, maimed, or deformed, with name of defect.”
• 1890 Veterans Scheduled—“Disability incurred”
• 1900—no health questions asked, but census records used a B in the right margin to indicate blind; DD (deaf and dumb); D (deaf); BD (blind and deaf); BDD (blind, deaf, and dumb)
• 1910—“Whether blind (both eyes)—Whether deaf and dumb”
• 1920 to 1940—none
• 1950—(release date, April 2022)—none

Most family historians zero in on the more relevant information, such as names, ages, children, and addresses, but they may often ignore these interesting tidbits of cryptic information—they escape me, too, sometimes. I have included the U.S. Census Bureau’s web site for individual decennial census enumerator instructions. I suggest browsing them when you have a chance and discover what you may have been missing in your census searches.

Next time, I will address the fine art of reading the shapes of words.