School Census Gives Evidence of Parentage

In Silver Bow County, Montana, the school districts took a census of children in their community. They counted children as young as infants up to twenty years of age. This helped them determine the number of classrooms and teachers needed. Here is the page from the 1910 school census for School District No. 1, where my 2x-great-uncle, Michael & Sarah Sullivan’s children were listed.[1]

The bonus in this school census for me is that the published census included each child, their birthdates, ages, parents’ names, and addresses. I can use this information to support the birth of the child and their parentage. Of course, this derivative record is not as reliable as a birth certificate. Still, if no birth record was created or the birth record is not available due to access restrictions, then this is a suitable alternative, as the parents likely gave the information.

Finding School Census Records
In checking the FamilySearch catalog using the keyword search of “school census,” I found over fifteen hundred hits. Many are authored works, meaning the hits are likely books that need to be viewed at a FamilySearch Center.

Other hits are links to actual census pages. Many of the records list children’s names and ages. Some list the parents’ names and only the number of children they have, without ages. A tax assessment form from Delhi, Norfolk County, Ontario, had two columns, one for the number of children under 5 and the other for the number between 5 and 16 years of age. There were no names.[2]

Other times, the census might only name the father, but list all the children and their ages, as in this Morgan County, Kentucky, school census.[3]

Another example for my own family is the record of educable children in Mississippi. My 2x-great-grandmother, Martha Jane Coor, was listed along with her siblings in the 1878 listing in Copiah County, Mississippi. However, neither of the parents’ names is listed--only the children’s names, ages, sex, and race. The tick marks are for white and black. Martha's younger brother, Dan, is not listed, so perhaps children under 5 were not counted.[4] 

Further Research

What I would do now, after finding school census records, would be to search for newspaper articles that might help me better understand how the census was taken. In searching for 1910 articles, I discovered that there was an increase of 8,000 children in Montana from the 1909 census, and that Silver Bow County led with the most.[5] Another article explained that state funds were distributed based on the school census numbers.[6] I also learned that the clerk of School District No. 1 put out a bid for taking the school census. The successful bidder was to furnish all stationery for the field work, all typewriting paper for making three copies, compiled with the first two letters of each name alphabetically arranged, and must bind two copies.[7]

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#52Ancestors: Week 36: Off to School

This is my eighth year working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow (https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/) at Generations Cafe.

I write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or My Trails into the Past. I have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways.

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[1] Silver Bow Co, Montana, school census, District No. 1, Michael Sullivan children, imaged, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QHV-J38J-R9C6-9 : accessed 2 July 2025); IGN 008701207, image 1800 of 2036.

[2] Norfolk Co, Ontario, Canada, assessment roll for Delhi, 1911, no. 1, Frank Allen entry, imaged, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QHN-Y3Y6-P985 : accessed 3 Sep 2025); IGN 009042500, image 7 of 247.

[3] Morgan Co, Kentucky, school census, District No. 1, 1893, p. 1, imaged, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QHV-F3ZL-J9X5-P : accessed 3 Sep 2025); IGN 008686104, image 5 of 569.

[4] "Enumeration of Educable Children," 1878, Copiah County, np, Brown's Store, Coor children, imaged, Mississippi Department of Archives and History   (https://da.mdah.ms.gov/series/educablechildren/copiah/1878/detail/694876 : accessed 3 Sep 2025); image 263 of 274.

[5] “State School Census,” The Butte Daily Post, 18 Feb 1910, p. 2, col. 4.

[6] “Easter Vacation in City Schools,” The Butte Daily Post, 16 Mar 1910, p. 2, col. 2.

[7] “Bids Wanted,” The Butte Miner, 5 Aug 1910, p. 11, col. 7.

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