Mortality Schedules (1850–1885): The Census of the Dead
For four decades, census takers also listed everyone who had died in the previous year. What the mortality schedules record, where to find them, and why they matter for deaths that left no other trace.
When census takers went door to door in 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880, they asked another question too: had anyone in the household died in the past year? The answers were recorded on separate mortality schedules. For many people who died before their state kept death records, the mortality schedule is the only record of their death, and sometimes of their existence.
What years are covered
Each schedule covers deaths in the twelve months before the census day, roughly June 1 of the previous year to May 31 of the census year:
- 1850: deaths from June 1849 to May 1850
- 1860: deaths from June 1859 to May 1860
- 1870: deaths from June 1869 to May 1870
- 1880: deaths from June 1879 to May 1880
Mortality schedules were also taken with the 1885 censuses of Colorado, Dakota Territory, Florida, Nebraska and New Mexico Territory. See State Census Records.
What they tell you
Columns varied by year, but typically include:
- Name, age, sex and color (race)
- Marital status (from 1860)
- Birthplace (state or country)
- Month of death
- Occupation
- Cause of death, and in some years how long the person was ill
- In 1880, the birthplaces of the person's parents, and how long they had lived in the area
Infants who were born and died between censuses appear nowhere else in the census at all. The mortality schedule may be the only record that a child ever lived.
Limits to keep in mind
- They undercount. Many deaths were never reported, because the family moved, the household had broken up, or the census taker didn't ask. Not finding someone doesn't mean they didn't die that year.
- Information came from the family, not a doctor, so causes are often vague. See Old Causes of Death Decoded.
- Only one year is covered. Deaths in the other nine years of each decade aren't recorded.
- Not all schedules survive. After the census office finished with them, the original schedules were sent to different places: some to states, some to the National Archives, and many to the Daughters of the American Revolution, which later distributed them. Some were lost.
Where to find them
- Ancestry and FamilySearch have indexes and images for many states.
- State archives and state libraries hold many originals. Check the archives for your state.
- The National Archives holds microfilm of many schedules.
- Published transcriptions exist for many states and counties, often by genealogical societies.
The FamilySearch Research Wiki page "United States Census Mortality Schedules" explains where each state's schedules are held.
How to use them
- Search for anyone in your family who disappears between two censuses, especially children and young adults.
- Browse the schedule for the town or county where your family lived. The schedules are short, often just a few pages per county, so browsing is fast.
- Compare with the population schedule: the household should appear in the regular census for the same year, minus the person who died.
- Note the month and cause, and look for a burial, gravestone, church record, or newspaper notice to confirm. See Cemetery Research.
Other census schedules worth knowing
The census produced other special schedules too, including agricultural schedules (farm by farm), manufacturing schedules, slave schedules (1850 and 1860), and the 1880 schedules of "Defective, Dependent and Delinquent Classes," which recorded people in institutions or with disabilities. See Institutional Records.