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Vincent Family
Records
Volume 5

1900 Census Index

Compiled by

Sheridan Eugene Vincent
and
Cecil LaVerne Vincent

An Index of the Vincent Family for the entire 1900 Census from Soundex Records

18,097 Individuals are indexed in the 614 pages, Hardbound 

The book is available from and make payment to

Sheridan E. Vincent
PO Box 16005
Rochester, NY 14616

E-mail address: svincent@frontiernet.net
 

Website www.vincent-family.org

 

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Background on the Project

As we enter the new millennium, it seems fitting to look back 100 years in the history of the Vincent Family. This book continues a series of publications titled Vincent Family Records, which document vital records of the family. Volumes One and Two with the contributions by Phyllis (Vincent) Owen indexed many census records through 1850. In this Volume Five, an index of the 1900 United States Census for the entire country has been prepared from the Soundex indexes. Census records are some of the most useful records for genealogy. In addition to enumerating the individuals, family relationships are often recorded. Also important is the identification of the location of the family's residence.

The 1900 census was significant for several reasons. The 1890 census was lost in a fire, so there was a 20-year gap in the census information. It was the only year that included the month of birth in addition to the year. Significantly, it was the first year where an index was prepared for all entries. The Soundex for 1880 only indexed families that had children less than 10 years of age.

The 1900 Soundex is available on microfilm from the National Archive. The Soundex is an index of those in the census using a system where names that have similar sounds are indexed together. The Soundex code for the Vincent surname is V-525. Surnames Vincent, Vinsent, Vinson, VanZandt, etc. are all together in the index. Thus is avoids the loss of a record owing to a spelling error by the census taker. (Note that in this index, we did not record the variations Vinson and VanZandt with some exceptions. The microfilm records are of the handwritten cards that were produced when the Soundex was prepared during the Depression. Not all of the information from the census was transcribed onto the card; however, the information from the card is very beneficial to genealogy research.

The project to index the 1900 census for the Vincent family began 20-years ago when I began to transcribe the Vincent references in the Soundex for states where I was trying to identify the families that had migrated from New York into the Midwest--Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Pennsylvania and others. To have a full record, I copied the information by hand from the microfilm to a notebook. It became my intention to complete this for the entire United States. I began to develop a Microsoft Access Database of these records by again transcribing the information from the notebooks to the database.

Several years ago I purchased a used microfilm reader and the process was simplified, as I could now copy the information directly into the computer database from the microfilms, which were available by rental from the National Archive. After completing several more states, it was obvious that the project would take a number of years to complete. One day, I asked my father, Cecil Laverne Vincent, if he would want to spend some time transcribing the information. He volunteered and proceeded over a nine-month timeframe to search the index cards for Vincent's and input the data into the database for all of the rest of the states. His patience in reading the, at times, difficult handwriting and diligence to the goal produced about 12,000 entries of the total of 18,097. With up to 18 data fields for each Soundex Entry, there was a total of 1.4 million pieces of information recorded in the database. I am extremely grateful to my father's participation in the project and the many hours of reading and typing. Thanks, Dad!

Once the data was in the Access database, it was all combined into one large data table. Using another computer program called Seagate Crystal Reports, the information was printed into the format of this book with a laser printer. The camera-ready pages were brought to a printer where they were duplicated using a xerographic copier. The printed pages were then brought to a binder, where they were bound as this hard copy book. The advancement of the computer capabilities to be able to publish this book is both timely and wonderful. One can only wonder what tools and capabilities genealogists will have in the year 2100 looking back one hundred years to our lifetime.

Sheridan Eugene Vincent
Rochester, New York
May 1, 1999

 

Book Layout

This book is made up of three separate indices that have been prepared in three sections:

Section 1 is sorted by the locality -- by state, then by county, then by town. With this index the genealogist can search for Vincent family members based on their resident locality. In this section the family unit as reported in the census is maintained in the order it was listed on the Soundex card All Vincent and allied family surnames are included in the Locality Index. Pages, cream-colored, in this section are numbered "Section 1, Page 1 to 323."

Section 2 breaks out the surnames associated with the Vincent families in the Soundex. Both individuals who were heading a household where Vincent's lived or individuals that were living with Vincent heads of households are included in the index. We did not generally include individuals who were classified as employees or boarders. Pages, blue-colored, in this section are numbered "Section 2, Page 1 to 19."

Section 3 includes individuals with the surname Vincent or a close spelling variation. The Vincent individuals are sorted by their first name and within each list of first names by the year of birth. For example, all of the John Vincent's will be printed together in the order of their birth years starting with the oldest and listing to the youngest John Vincent. Note that if the birth year or first name was not available, the individual will be moved to the top of the group, also, in preparing this index and attempting to keep it to a manageable size, we generally did not include the surnames Vinson, VanZandt, etc.. Pages, white, in this section are numbered "Section 3, Page 1 to 263."

Interesting Facts from the Census Information

*      There are 18,097 individuals identified in this book, with 16,945 having the surname of Vincent or close variant spelling. The remaining 1,152 were individuals with surnames other than Vincent who were either heads of households having Vincent residents, or living with a Vincent family.

*      The most Vincent's in one state was New York with 1944; Louisiana was second with 1305 individuals. The oldest Vincent male was John Vincent, a Negro man residing at Point Coupee, Ward #10, Louisiana who was 114 years old, born in 1786. Second oldest was Spencer Vincent, a Negro man residing at Sylacouga Pct. #11, Talladega Co., Alabama, who was 102 years old.

*      The oldest Vincent female was Margaret Vincent, a white woman who was 94 years old, residing at Delhi Township, Hamilton County, Ohio. Second oldest was Susan Vincent, a Negro woman living in Hanover, Jefferson County aged 92.

*      There were five people named Vincent Vincent.

*      Some of the more unusual names: Poke Vincent, Bully Vincent, Merabean Victor Hugo Vincent,

*      There were 5103 white heads of Households with the surname Vincent and 886 households who were black.