Stalking your Brinkley ancestors!

"The 1930 Brinkley Census and How to Stalk Your Ancestors"

Bill Sayger's second volume of "A Brinkley Remembrancer" begins with that engaging headline and some really interesting information about Brinkley's population several decades ago:

There were 3,046 souls living in Brinkley in 1930; 1,637 were listed as "Whites" and 1,409 as "Negroes." We learn that from the census taken that year, from April 2nd thru May 1st, by Edgar T. McCreight, who had an insurance office in town.

A little further down the page, Sayger continues:

As one researches back in time, less and less information is available from the census record. For example, Blacks were only listed by name beginning with the 1870 census, unless they had been freed. On the early census records, a distinction was made between Blacks and Mulattoes. All Whites were listed by name beginning in 1850. Prior to that only the name of the head of the household was shown, with others -- the wife, children, or other family members, and the slaves -- listed under age groups, such as 1 to 10, 11 to 24, etc. Though not listed by name in 1850 and 1860, slaves were listed under their owner's names by their exact age, sex, and whether Black or Mulatto.

The next 60-plus pages of the book are copies of pages of the 1930 census. They are a bit hard on the eyes but worth looking at, especially if you had relatives in town then. (I did not.)

These two volumes of local history are very well researched and presented very personally with typed pages and even a few hand-written additions.