Jury Census Lists, New York City- 1816, 1819, and 1821

This list is one of the reasons I started this blog. When I went to the Municipal Archives (31 Chambers St., first floor) to view the collection I was told they didn't have it at first. I was shocked that people weren't using this collection more. Though it is only worthwhile if you have NYC ward 1-10 ancestors and as a warning some wards are missing from each year. I will get the information about what wards are missing and update when I do. I may even make a template to extract the information from the lists.

About the collection

The city of New York conducted a census of inhabitants in 1816, 1819, and 1821 to determine the eligibility of jurors. The information gathered included name, occupation, age, reasons for exemption (sometimes only says exempt) if exempt, for the head of household. It also includes number of jurors in household, number and citizenship status but not names for the rest of the household, and various financial questions. It is by street address so you need to not only know the ward but the address unless you plan on going page by page. Fold3 has city directories for New York City from 1786 to 1922, another fabulous resource, so if needed you can find your ancestor there beforehand to get their address.

As you can see from the years covered it can be a valuable supplement to the 1820 census information. In some cases helping you determine if someone is your ancestor or not. This is an underutilized resource given the information it provides. Unfortunately he only place I know where it can be accessed is at the Municipal Archives so it is a on-site trip, not online, resource.

You can find out more about the collection and an image example here.

Have a great one!
The Scatterbrained Genealogist

Starting Off

I wanted to start something separate from my family history blog to make it easier for people. It keeps you from having to dig through a bunch of different stories about people you aren't interested in. I don't see myself posting here every day. This will be more of a blog to update resources that I have run across that I though may help other people. A lot of these resources will be nothing new to some people but to others just starting out it may be helpful in some way.