© May 1999-2009  Jason M Bray. These pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization. Non-commercial organizations desiring to use this material must obtain the consent of the transcriber prior to use. You may however use the information in your own research.

Thanks to Dr. John F. Schunk of S-K Publications for providing the census 
page photocopies from which this transcription was made. The complete 
original, handwritten census of this county is available in book form 
(including a typed index) from S-K Publications, PO Box 8173, Wichita KS
67208-0173 (http://www.skpub.com/genie/census.html).

Census Year    1850
Microfilm #    432-647
State          North Carolina
County         Wake

In conducting the Census one of the enumerators, H. H. Harris, deviated 
from the procedure of marking a "/" in the columns to indicate Married 
within the Year, Attended School within the Year, and persons over 20 years 
of age who cannot read and write. Instead he entered numbers in the columns, 
generally for the head of household to indicate the numbers in the dwelling
with these characteristics. Thus, it is not possible to tell which 
individuals had those characteristics. In the computerized version, an X 
has been keyed in the columns where the enumerator placed a number, and 
the numbers are noted as remarks (e.g., Read/Write contains a 2).

The enumerator, Stephen Stephenson, used initials instead of given names on 
pages 172a through 184b. After that he wrote out the complete given names.
In addition, with the exception of about twenty people, Stephenson's 
portion of the census that runs from pages 172a through 255b, shows the 
birthplace as being North Carolina. Although this is possible, it seems 
highly unlikely. On some pages, North Carolina was written in a completely 
different, non-cursive handwriting, suggesting that someone else later 
filled in the blank fields of the birthplace column.

This transcription was undertaken to fulfill my service project requirement 
to earn the rank of Eagle Scout. I am indebted to many individuals who 
helped make it possible. This census was transcribed, for the most part, 
by volunteers who are not professional genealogists. Over 125 volunteers 
spent more than 950 hours transcribing and keying the data, checking and 
verifying the initial transcription and correcting errors. Together, we 
transcribed over 15,450 names. The transcription was verified twice, once 
by volunteers, and once by two professional genealogists. Thus, within the 
limits of our ability to decipher the handwriting, I feel confident that 
the information that has been transcribed is correct.

I wish to give special thanks to three individuals. Mrs. Susan Zolkowski, 
Second Vice President of the Wake County Genealogical Society which 
sponsors the USGenWeb website for Wake County, NC, was my sponsor and 
provided enthusiastic support for the project. Randolyn Emerson, a 
professional genealogist, introduced me to the USGenWeb project, provided 
overall mentoring for the effort, and spent countless hours helping train 
volunteers how to read Census handwriting and in verifying the accuracy 
of the data. Terry Moore, also a professional genealogist, likewise gave 
freely of her time with the final verification.

I hope that many people will benefit from the use of these data in a 
computerized format.







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