Noble Records
from the Whan Collection
hosted by Noble County Public Library

Noble Co	Biographies	Births & Deaths	Bulletin Board	Cemeteries	Census
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Noble County Census
My index records include all members of the family except in those instances when faded copies made transcription impossible. Those entries are listed as "illegible". Census takers didn’t always use the same spelling as families intended. As a research aid, spellings used by today's families were used wherever they could be identified, causing a difference from the actual written record. Italics denote the change. Some of the handwriting may have been misinterpreted; and corrections to misinterpretations are welcomed.

Noble County 1866 Enumeration of White Male Inhabitants
This record includes a listing of white male inhabitants and their ages during the year 1865-1866 and submitted to the State of Indiana in mid-1866.

1840	1860 A-F	1870 A-D	1880 A-F	1900 A-E	1910 A-E	1920 A-E	1930 A-E	1940 A-E
1850	1860 G-N	1870 E-J	1880 G-L	1900 F-K	1910 F-K	1920 F-K	1930 F-K	1940 F-K
	1860 O-Z	1870 K-R	1880 M-S	1900 L-R	1910 L-R	1920 L-R	1930 L-R	1940 L-R
	1880 DDD	1870 S-Z	1880 T-Z	1900 S-Z	1910 S-Z	1920 S-Z	1930 S-Z	1940 S-Z
1866A-J	1866K-Z

1940 Noble County Census - by FamilySearch

Federal Census
The first federal census was in 1790; however, Noble County, Indiana wasn't organized until 1836, making its first census in 1840. This census included names of heads of households and number, age and sex of occupants. In 1850 and 1860 all family members were listed, in addition to age, sex, color, occupation of each male over fifteen, place of birth, and special conditions, such as deafness, etc. Additional information was included in each succeeding census; however, most of the 1890 census was destroyed by fire. The most recent, 1930, was made available to the public in 2002.

Many libraries maintain copies of local county census records on microfilm. The genealogical library in Fort Wayne, Indiana, has all census records for the United States, as well as some for Canada, in their repository. There are online commercial genealogical sites who provide census records for viewing by their members.;Volunteers who will research census records are:

Annette DeHoff - State of Indiana - 1860

Mike Pollock - 1880 U. S. census

Commercially prepared indexes quite often include misspelled names because of difficulty in transcription of poor handwriting of unfamiliar names. An example: John Bender was listed as John Dender, leaving that family to never be found under "Bender". Therefore, the name you are searching may be included in the census even though it does not appear in an index.

Soundex System
The Soundex indexing system was used in 1880 for households with a child age 10 or under and in 1900 and subsequent years in a few other state census records. It is basically simple despite its complicated appearance. The surname is indexed by using the initial letter; the letter is followed by three numerical digits based on the consonants that follow the surname initial. Consonants that sound somewhat alike are drawn together under one numeric code. Example: The letters b, p, f and v may sound alike or be confused by the hearer and they are given the same number in the Soundex system. Vowels plus y, w and h are not coded. The codes are as follows:

1 b, p, f, v

2 c, s, k, g, j, q, x , z

3 d, t

4 l

5 m, n

6 r

Zeros are added when this is no code number. A name such as Lee would be coded L000. Key letters or equivalents appearing together without separating vowels or noncoded letters are coded as one digit. A name such as Barrett would be B630. This index is helpful when the place of residence is unknown.

Enumeration of Male Inhabitants over the age of 21 - Swan Township, Noble County - 1901

Links to Other Sites

Indiana Census Records - Census Online

1880 United States, 1881 British, and the 1881Canadian Census Online - by Familysearch

Noble Notes: A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.
- Greek proverb