Nelly Harby was seventy-five when she died in November of 1849 in Charleston, South Carolina. Her death was recorded by Assistant Marshall Morris Goldsmith. William Hardeys was fifty-five when he died in September in Troup County, Georgia. Both were born in Africa.
What do Nelly and William have in common? They were both African slaves whose deaths were recorded in the 1850 United States Mortality Schedules, indexed and available on Family Search.org. Twenty years before, former slaves were first recorded in the population schedules of the 1870 census. Those who died one year prior to the taking of the 1850 census were recorded by name. Many of these entries were recorded with just a first name. Some may have been record along with the owner’s name like Cuffy, age 50, Reuben age 12, and Lowell age 2. All were owned by William A Carson whose name also appears on the schedule. They are just a few of the 42,000 slave deaths recorded.
The 1850 mortality schedules contains a variety of useful information about individuals such as:
- Name of every person who died during the year ending the 1st of June 1850, whose usual place of abode at time of death was in this family
- Age
- Sex
- Color
- Free or Slave
- Married or Widowed
- Place of Birth
- The month in which the person died
- Profession, Occupation, or Trade
A sample from of the schedules are available on the National Archives website. Below is an example of what one of these forms looks like.
Information about searching the collection through FamilySearch can be found in the collection’s supporting wiki article “United States Mortality Schedules, 1850 .” This article contains useful hints about searching the collection and tips for using the information that you find.
The research wiki article article also lists useful websites and other collections that can help you find your early African American ancestors. Or you can go directly to the United States Census (Mortality Schedule), 1850 to being a search. To search for individuals, type their name into the search boxes at the top of the page.
Nelly, William, Cuffy, Reuben and Lowell along with the 42,000 African Americans who did not live to see the end of Slavery. But the challenges they faced will not be forgotten in those years before the Civil War. Their names are among the many records available on FamilySearch including family members who lived on after the Civil War and received help and assistance after the from the Freedmen’s Bureau. Images of the Freedmen’s Bureau records in twenty -two collections are available on FamilySearch and are being indexed by volunteers. These records are being published by FamilySearch as part of the Freedmen’s Bureau Project.
