1850 Census & 1850-1880 Mortality Schedule

This publication contains two types of records. First, the 1850 Federal Census for Northampton County, Virginia. The 1850 Census is sometimes referred to as the first modern census because it was the first federal census to collect mortality information, record slaves on a separate schedule, and name each person within a household. Information on each person includes: name, age, gender, place of birth, occupation (if over 15 years), and value of personal property.

The second book is Federal Mortality Schedules for the years 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880. The information contained in the mortality records was collected when the census taker, traveling door to door, recorded the population at ten year intervals. The deaths were counted from the July preceding the Census year to the July of the Census year, i.e. July 1849 to July 1850.

The mortality records are important because they represent the only death records available for Northampton County, Virginia for the period before 1853, the first year for collecting vital statistics, and for the years 1879 and 1880 which are lost.