Did you know that a law was passed in 1897 requiring all of the villages in New York State to conduct a village census in January 1898 and again every four years? I sure didn’t! It wasn’t until I was looking at the WPA Clerk Inventories at the New York State Archives that I learned about these censuses.
The WPA inventory from 1936 indicted that the Village of Youngstown had a census book from 1898. So I called around and eventually found that census located at the Town of Porter’s Historical Society!
Essentially, the law was passed as part of an act to define Villages in New York State including how they would be classified based on their population (Laws of 1897, Chapter 414, Section 310 Enumeration). You can read the law at Internet Archive.
Curious, I started doing newspaper searching to look for mentions about the Village Censuses and found some:1
This particular newspaper article from 1902 really made me laugh at the end of it!2
The Town of Porter Historical Society allowed me to scan their copy of the Youngstown Village Census. The information collected was:
- Name
- Sex
- Residence
- Over or under twenty-one years of age
- Remarks
If you interested in seeing more, access to the digital copy of the Youngstown village census is available in the NCGS Members Only area HERE.
The enumeration portion of the Village Law was repealed in May 1906. Meaning that there should have been village censuses taken for three-consecutive four-year spans: 1898, 1902, and 1906.
The 1898 Youngstown village census is the only surviving one that I have found for Niagara County… so far! If you know of any others, please reach out to me: Jeanette@jeanettesgenealogy.com.
- “Village Census,” Mexico (NY) Independent, 5 January 1898, p. 8, col. 2; digital images, NYS Historic Newspapers (https://www.nyshistoricnewspapers.org/ : accessed 26 January 2025).
- “The Villages’ Census,” The Gloversville (NY) Daily Leader, 30 January 1902, p. 7, col. 3; digital images, NYS Historic Newspapers (https://www.nyshistoricnewspapers.org/ : accessed 26 January 2025).
