Enumeration of Youth of Sandusky’s 8th Ward

On May 10, 1912, Lena Smith signed an oath in which she pledged to record the enumeration of the youth in Sandusky’s Eighth Ward. The enumeration was to take place during the two weeks ending on the fourth Saturday of May. All unmarried youth between the ages of six and twenty one were to be counted, with a record of their name, sex, age and address. An accurate count of children who were physically disabled was also to be recorded. Race was not listed in this enumeration. Children who lived in the Eighth Ward attended the Eighth Ward School, later known as Campbell School.

Here is a page for the enumeration of youth whose surnames began with the letter E:

The name of the head of the household was listed first, followed by the names of the children. Birth dates were listed only for the children within in each family. The street name and house number were recorded on the right portion of the page. In May, 1912, Helen Ebert was 19 and Paul Ebert was 13, and they resided at 217 Hayes Avenue. The photograph below shows the Conrad Ebert residence on Hayes Avenue, with Paul and Helen standing near the steps, from about 1903.

While not many of the Ohio Enumeration of Youth notebooks have survived, they provide excellent genealogical information. One can get a thorough record of the young people who lived in a particular neighborhood. The actual pages of the Enumeration Notebook are similar to U.S. Census records, but they were not tallied during census years, making for a unique genealogical resource.