Indians in the Census

This week has been crazy. I have been trying to find proof that Mary Elizabeth "Be-bo" Wilmette is the daughter of Louis Wilmette to write a proof summary. However, I have had little luck in finding anything solid.

I have been working on a census search but have had little luck finding any of the Wilmette family before 1890 since according to the National Archives website, the instructions for census enumerators were to only write down the names of the Indians paying taxes. This allowed for many of the Indians to be skipped. According to the article, only 8-22% were enumerated between the years 1860-1880. This leaves a huge possibility that this is the reason I cannot find my family on the census records in that time period. I have found a few but only because the woman married a white man. The first census I can find Mary on is the 1880 census, after she is married. She and her three surviving children are listed as Indian while her husband is white.

1880 U.S. Federal Census, Wabaunsee County, Kansas, population schedule, Maple Hill, ED 121, page 2, dwelling 11, family 11, P. John Herd; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 9 March 2010); citing NARA microfilm publication T9, roll 399.

I have searched Ancestry.com for the census years when Mary would have been a child but have had not luck in finding her or her parents. However, I did find a family history book that has information on the Crumbo family which is who Mary (see above) married into. There is some information on Mary's family including her maiden name that then leads back to who she was but there are a few sources. It references a book written by Mary Patricia O'Grady Johnson, who is a granddaughter to the Crumbo line, called Foot Prints of the Past, but I cannot find it anywhere.

For more information on the Native Americans in the Censuses, there is an article by James P. Collins that can be found at http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2006/summer/indian-census.html.