The Mortality Schedule, a Non-Population Census – 52 Ancestors # 34

There are a variety of non-population census schedules, some of which are accessible online these days (and some have actually been available for more than ten years).  I think the first one I ran across was the mortality schedule for 1860 in Ohio.  I was looking for my ancestor John Salt, who died in October 1859, and found the listing for him on the 1860 mortality schedule.

What did I learn from this schedule?  As can been seen, there are a number of pieces of information on this particular sheet.  The columns include: name, age, gender, color, whether free or slave, and married or widowed, place of birth, month in which person died, occupation, disease or cause of death, and number of days ill.  This information was gathered for persons who had died during the year that ended June 1, 1860, in this case for Tate Township in Clermont county, Ohio.  So about John I learned that he was 76 when he died, he was married, he was born in Virginia, he died in October, he was a farmer, he had died from “Affection of the Bladder” and had been ill for 40 days.   In this case the “Affection” was the archaic meaning of condition or disease.  This is about as much detailed information as I might have found on a death register from the time.  For whatever reason, there either isn’t a death register in existence or it had not (and has not) been filmed or digitized.

Due to the township and time frame, there are at least a couple of other individuals on the mortality schedule sheet who are of interest to me.  The name directly below John Salt is Lucinda (Planck Wharton) Salt, who was John’s sister-in-law, his brother Edward’s 2nd wife.  She was born in Kentucky and had suffered from a disease of the heart for the past year before her death.  The last person, and last on the page, was Alphius Tribble, who was the father of a daughter named America who married a grandnephew of John’s.  Alphius (or Alpheus) was 45 when he died of lock jaw.  He also was a farmer and there is little other information about him.  Although he was married at the time that fact wasn’t listed.  Nor was where he was born.  His daughter, America, who married a Salt would have been only about 13.

I found this 1860 mortality schedule in 2007 and at that point the only information I had about John Salt’s death was from a compiled manuscript by family members.  It wasn’t until 5 years later that I made a trip to Ohio and saw John’s grave for myself.  So the mortality schedule was the strongest documentation I had for his death.  As it continues to be.