RootsChat.Com

Research in Other Countries => United States of America => Topic started by: JustinL on Monday 05 September 16 20:48 BST (UK)

Title: 1860 Federal Census of New York - help reading the scrawl, please
Post by: JustinL on Monday 05 September 16 20:48 BST (UK)
Hi,

Does anybody out there have any experience reading the awful handwriting in the 1860 census?

I am very eager to know what Jacob Trueheart (no. 558) did for a living, but I just cannot make out what the enumerator scribbled on the sheet.

Any ideas?

Justin
Title: Re: 1860 Federal Census of New York - help reading the scrawl, please
Post by: shellyesq on Monday 05 September 16 22:36 BST (UK)
It looks like he's a tailor in the 1859 city directory and a clothier in the 1857 city directory, so maybe we should be looking for something in the world of clothes.
Title: Re: 1860 Federal Census of New York - help reading the scrawl, please
Post by: ShaunJ on Monday 05 September 16 23:44 BST (UK)
 It looks to me like "second hand store"
Title: Re: 1860 Federal Census of New York - help reading the scrawl, please
Post by: lanarman on Tuesday 06 September 16 00:44 BST (UK)
I agree- "Second Hand Store".
Title: Re: 1860 Federal Census of New York - help reading the scrawl, please
Post by: barryd on Tuesday 06 September 16 05:46 BST (UK)
From the New York Times 1861. If this is the same person Trueheart is an alias.

http://www.nytimes.com/1861/11/19/news/felonious-assault-by-felix-sanchez.html

For more information on second hand stores speed read the following

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0019_0_19521.html
Title: Re: 1860 Federal Census of New York - help reading the scrawl, please
Post by: JustinL on Tuesday 06 September 16 08:09 BST (UK)
Fantastic! Thank you all very much.

Shaun - I would never have been able to decipher it. You must have very experienced eyes. Thank you.

Shelley - Were those directories in ancestry? I could only find Jacob's widow and sons in later directories.

Barry - I found that article too yesterday evening. Would a 48-year-old man have been employed as a tier-boy (a messenger boy, I gather) in the City Prison? I somehow envisaged a considerably younger man, if not an actual boy.

Justin
Title: Re: 1860 Federal Census of New York - help reading the scrawl, please
Post by: barryd on Tuesday 06 September 16 18:16 BST (UK)
I tried to get a definition of Tier Boy. The only one I found was -

(A person who)   Spread a fresh surface of colour on the printer's 'pad' each time he used it to print calico.

Very weird.
Title: Re: 1860 Federal Census of New York - help reading the scrawl, please
Post by: ShaunJ on Tuesday 06 September 16 18:49 BST (UK)
Some references to tier boys in 19th century US prisons:

http://goo.gl/wy53gN

http://urbanunderworld.weebly.com/sing-sing-prison-and-the-penitentiary.html

http://goo.gl/7zeAAV 

http://goo.gl/IbmisL

Title: Re: 1860 Federal Census of New York - help reading the scrawl, please
Post by: shellyesq on Tuesday 06 September 16 19:00 BST (UK)
Quote from: JustinL on Tuesday 06 September 16 08:09 BST (UK)
Shelley - Were those directories in ancestry? I could only find Jacob's widow and sons in later directories.

Yes.

On www.fultonhistory.com, there is an article that talks about a clerk at a clothing store being arrested for embezzling clothes from his employer and selling them to 3 tailors, one of whom was Jacob Trueheart. 

It's a bit hard to read, but it looks like he was a licensed dealer of second hand goods per this - https://archive.org/stream/manualofcorpora1860newy/manualofcorpora1860newy_djvu.txt
Title: Re: 1860 Federal Census of New York - help reading the scrawl, please
Post by: ShaunJ on Wednesday 07 September 16 14:16 BST (UK)
Quote
It's a bit hard to read, but it looks like he was a licensed dealer of second hand goods per this - https://archive.org/stream/manualofcorpora1860newy/manualofcorpora1860newy_djvu.txt

This format is easier to read. He was licensed from 21 May 1859 - see page 394:  https://archive.org/details/manualofcorpora1860newy