Why is my ancestor's wife not listed in 1850?

She may be there under a given name only, dittoed under the surname, or in a different household. There is no relationship column in 1850, so a woman listed after the head is assumed, not stated, to be his wife.

What do the marks in the last three columns mean?

A tick or a 1 in "Married within year", "Attended school" and "Cannot read or write" means yes. A blank means no, or the question was not asked of someone that age.

Does the 1850 census list enslaved people?

Not by name. The slave schedules list each enslaved person under the owner's name with age, sex and colour only.

Record columns

Reading the 1850 US census, column by column

1850 is the first federal census to name every free person in a household rather than the head alone, which is why it is the wall so many American family trees run into. The schedule is narrow — a dozen columns — and the handwriting is early Spencerian or late copperplate, usually in iron-gall ink gone brown. This guide lists the columns in the order they are printed, what belongs in each, and the marks that trip transcribers.

Date: June 1, 1850
Columns: 12
Handwriting: Early Spencerian or copperplate. Capitals are flourished, the surname is written once and dittoed, ages are small and cramped. Expect the long s only in older enumerators' hands.

The columns in order

The 12 columns of the 1850 US census in the order they are printed, and what the clerk wrote in each.
#	Column	What it holds
1	Dwelling no.	The enumerator's running count of houses visited, not a street number. Several families can share a dwelling.
2	Family no.	Running count of households. A boarder or servant is listed within the family that housed them.
3	Name	Surname first, then given name; the surname is often written once and dittoed for the rest of the family. Spelled as the enumerator heard it.
4	Age	Age at last birthday, as given by whoever answered the door. Infants in fractions ("2/12" is two months). Treat every age as within five years.
5	Sex	M or F.
6	Color	W white, B black, Mu mulatto; from 1870 also Ch Chinese, In Indian; later Jp, Fil, Hin, Kor. Written as the enumerator judged, not as the person said.
7	Occupation	As stated; "keeping house", "at home", "farm laborer", "none". Children "at school". A blank is a blank, not "none".
8	Value of real estate	Dollar value of land owned, as stated. A farm laborer with 0 and a farmer with 2000 is the usual pattern.
9	Birthplace	A state or a country, as the enumerator wrote it: "Ohio", "Ireland", "Prussia", "Bohemia". Pre-1900 abbreviations are frequent (Pa, O, Va, Ind).
10	Married within year	A tick if married in the twelve months before census day.
11	Attended school	A tick or the number of months if the person attended school in the past year.
12	Cannot read or write	A tick for a person over 20 who could not read and write.

What to watch for on this form

Enslaved people are on a separate slave schedule, by owner, age, sex and colour, without names.
No relationship column: the household is in the order the enumerator met it, usually parents then children by age, then others. Do not assume a woman listed second is the wife.
Birthplace is a state or a country; "Germany" rarely appears — expect Prussia, Bavaria, Hesse, Baden, Hanover.
The value-of-real-estate column is the only wealth question; personal estate arrives in 1860.

Abbreviations and marks

do / " / „ — ditto — the same as the line above
Hd — head of household
Wf — wife
Dau — daughter
S-in-L — son-in-law
Bdr — boarder
Svt — servant
Na / Pa / Al — naturalized / first papers / alien
O / R — home owned / rented
F / M — free of mortgage / mortgaged
W / B / Mu — white / black / mulatto in the color column
S / M / W / D — single / married / widowed / divorced
x, / , 1 — a tick in a yes/no column
2/12 — two months old
Pa, O, Va, Ind, Ky — state abbreviations in the birthplace column

Rows to CSV

Type one person per line with cells separated by a tab or a |, in the column order above. Blank cells may be left empty; write [illegible] where you cannot read. The CSV is built by the same code the app uses for its export.

Rows

Questions

Why is my ancestor's wife not listed in 1850?: She may be there under a given name only, dittoed under the surname, or in a different household. There is no relationship column in 1850, so a woman listed after the head is assumed, not stated, to be his wife.
What do the marks in the last three columns mean?: A tick or a 1 in "Married within year", "Attended school" and "Cannot read or write" means yes. A blank means no, or the question was not asked of someone that age.
Does the 1850 census list enslaved people?: Not by name. The slave schedules list each enslaved person under the owner's name with age, sex and colour only.

About this page

Column lists follow the printed schedule or register form; descriptions are in our own words from the National Archives' census instructions to enumerators, the FamilySearch Research Wiki and the usual parish-register handbooks. This is the same column list Cursive Lens reads the page against; a test in the app fails if the two ever disagree. Last reviewed 2026-10-17.