1830 Federal Census of
Orange County, Indiana

This transcription of the 1830 census is presented in the order it was written down by George P. Lynd, Assistant to the Marshal of the State of Indiana, when he travelled from house to house in 1830. The advantage of this type of presentation is that you can get a feel for the "neighborhoods" of the time; you can see who lived near to your ancestors; you can follow family groups as they migrated from one county or state to the next.

Every effort has been made to maintain accuracy; however, mistakes happen. If you need to document any information using this census, I strongly recommend you double-check the original. In the few cases where I could not decipher a name, I made my best guess and marked it with a question mark.

What Do All Those Numbers Mean?

A typical entry looks like this:

The first group of numbers are the white males; the second group is the white females. From left to right, each group of numbers represents the following:

And so on, in ten-year groups thereafter. So, in Nathaniel VEST's family, there was one male child under 5, one 5-10, and one 30-40. There were two females under 5, one 5-10, one 10-15, and one 30-40.

In the case of free colored persons, the numbers have a different meaning, as in this example:

Note that the dashed lines mean no person of that particular color/sex were living in that household. The first group of numbers still represents males and the second females. But now the numbers have these meanings:

There was only one slave living in Orange County in 1830, and I have noted that person as such.

I urge you to check variant spellings, as I copied the names just as I found them. For example, the modern 'Pinnick' was spelled 'Penick', 'Newton' appeared as 'Nuton'.

To use this census, you can either browse through the census pages, or use the index.

Courtesy of Warren Simmons