Thank you for your thoughts re the meaning of BS on the 1820 Cumberland
County Census.
Might it mean bastard son? Or would a bastard take his mother's name?
I don't think it has any geographic meaning, because the record shows
occasional indications of the village/town where the individual lived.
Sally Phillips
----- Original Message -----
From: "Elizabeth Shown Mills" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2008 2:30 PM
Subject: Re: [VA-ROOTS] 1820 Census BS
> David wrote:
>>Just to throw another possibility into the mix - I've seen people
> designated
> as "blacksmith" or "b.s." on tax lists. Perhaps "BS" in this census record
> could be an abbreviation for blacksmith.
>
>>C. Etter wrote:
>>It looks like column number 15 is for people
> engaged in manufacturing, and blacksmithing could be considered as
> manufacturing.
>>Teach of the 3 guys shown with a "BS" in
> the above examples appears to have people listed in the manufacturing
> column, which would be consistent with a blacksmith operation.
>
>
>
> Good points.
>
> Column 17 (15 columns after the name) is, indeed, headed "Numbers of
> persons
> engaged in Manufactures." And blacksmiths would, logically, seem to be
> included in this column.
>
> On the other hand, what seems "logical" to us may have been considered
> differently in the past. On this particular issue, the evidentiary waters
> are really muddy.
>
> According to the census instructions issued 20 June 1820 by the Department
> of State (which are not included at the IPUMS website for census
> instructions, but can be found in the 1820 census compendium published the
> next year as _Census for 1820: Published by authority of an Act of
> Congress,
> under the direction of the Secretary of State_ [Washington: Gales &
> Seaton,
> Printer]):
>
> "In the column of manufactures will be included not only all the persons
> employed in what the act more specifically denominates manufacturing
> _establishments_, but all those artificers, handicraftsmen, and mechanics,
> whose labor is pre eminently of the hand, and not upon the field."
>
> I.e., smithies--who worked with their hands--would seem to be included.
>
> *However,* the Descriptive Pamphlet that NARA has prepared for M279
> (Records
> of the 1820 Census of Manufactures" follows the issue through some
> bureaucratic wrangling. Page 2 of the DP tells us:
>
> "In May 1820 Secretary of State John Quincy Adams began drafting
> instructions to the marshals for taking the census of manufactures. The
> results were incorporated with the instructions relating to the taking of
> the population enumeration and were sent to the marshals on June 20, 1820.
> When several marshals noted difficulties in interpretation, the Secretary,
> on August 5, sent them a letter of 'elucidations' to the instructions. .
> .
> . The instructions [of June 20] applied the exception of household
> manufactures to section 10 and to the column for manufactures in the
> population schedules. The August 5 letter included in the "excepted"
> category all persons of the 'mechanical professions or handicrafts' and
> defined household manufactures as the products of artisans who produced
> "works of handicraft" and were therefore commonly known as mechanics."
>
> Unfortunately, Virginia's returns for the manufacturing schedule of 1820
> appear to have been lost and aren't included on M279, so we can't test the
> theory that these three men were blacksmiths.
>
> Playing Devil's Advocate, one thing keeps me from settling into the
> hypothesis that "BS" means blacksmith. Actually, 2 things:
>
> 1. "BS" appears only 3 times in the entire county. Surely a
> well-established county in 1820 would have more than 3 blacksmiths.
>
> 2. If the enumerator was noting, there on the population schedule, the
> specific occupation for individuals included on the manufacturing
> schedule,
> then why aren't all the other occupations noted?
>
> 3. the one other initialism found after a name, "SM," still remains
> unexplained and does not seem explainable under the BS=Blacksmith
> hypothesis. SM appears only once--in the Field Robinson case for which we
> have (p. 134)
>
> Robinson BS, Field 1 male 16-26, 1 male 45+, 0 slaves, 2 in mfg.
> Robinson SM, Field 1 male 26-45, 2 fem 45+, 20 slaves, 7 in ag
>
> We can't argue that it was necessary to distinguish a "Field Robinson,
> Blacksmith" from "Field Robinson, Something More" because there are too
> many
> other cases of same-name individuals in the county who don't have
> distinguishing initialisms--including multiple John Robinsons other than
> "John Robinson, BS"
>
> We sure need more grist for this mill!
>
>
> Elizabeth
>
> ------------------------------------------------------
>
> Elizabeth Shown Mills, CG, CGL, FASG
> Advanced Research Methodology & Evidence Analysis
> Samford University Institute of Genealogy & Historical Research
>
> _Evidence: Citation & Analysis for the Family Historian_
> (the "briefcase edition")
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> to Cyberspace_ (the "desktop reference edition")
> _QuickSheet: Citing Online Historical Resource, Evidence Style_
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> Writers, Editors, Lecturers & Librarians_
>
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