1900 US Federal Census

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Series

Prompt: In the Census

The Twelfth Census of the United States Population Schedule No. 1 always held a bit of mystery for me over the years.  It has to do with the family of my great-grandfather Wesley Hiram Bush living in Waverly Township, Cheboygan County, Michigan. In 1992 I had learned that Wesley and Minerva Bush had a daughter Ivanilla. Ivanilla was born in 1884, died in 1886 and was buried in the Waverly Township Cemetery.  When I found the family in the 1900 US Federal Census I was surprised to see Iva listed and being 15 years of age.  

This mystery baffled me for the past three years. Had she died as an infant or did she live longer? Was the Iva in the census a different person than the Ivanilla who had died? Then I learned about another member of the family. Frank was born in 1890 in Michigan and died in 1892 in Nebraska. Wesley had moved his family to Nebraska to try farming there with his brother Daniel. They only stayed for three years and then moved back to Michigan. Frank was buried in Lexington, Nebraska but he also showed up in the 1900 census at nine years old. This added to the mystery and I took a closer look at the census record. Minerva’s information stated that she had seven children but only five living, but all seven were listed in the census with their ages. Ivanilla and Frank were listed in order of when they were born in the family with the ages they would have been if they had lived.

Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 31 March 2018), memorial page for Ivanilla Bush (26 Dec 1884–27 Aug 1886), Find A Grave Memorial no. 131903202, citing Walker Township Cemetery, Fingerboard Corner, Cheboygan County, Michigan, USA ; Maintained by Jan (contributor 47036759) . 

I do not know why they were included in the census, but it was a good lesson for me to look further into what the census was saying in the other columns. I may have figured this out sooner than I did.

Thank you for joining my search!
Dennis

Credit for this series to Amy Johnson Crow, Certified Genealogist