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Chautauqua County Genealogical Society holds meeting on 1850 Census

Norm Carlson from Busti was the recent speaker at the Chautauqua County Genealogical Society meeting in Fredonia on the 1850 Census.

The Chautauqua County Genealogical Society met recently in the Barker Library in Fredonia for a meeting and talk on the 1850 Census.

President Walt Sedlmayer opened the gathering with a welcome, and had members and guests introduce themselves. Debbie Kotar, treasurer, gave the financial report of the organization. Wayne Leamer, newsletter editor, gave a report on the membership and the latest newsletter which will be sent out in a few weeks. Member John Sipos wrote the minutes of the meeting.

Vice President Gail Dash gave a report on the upcoming topics for future meetings. At the May 15 meeting, member Susan W. Sipos will be presenting the history of the Gross family of the former Brooks Locomotive works from Dunkirk. All meetings begin at 6:30 p.m. and conclude by 8 p.m.

Speaker for the recent meeting was member Norm Carlson from Busti. Carlson spoke about the 1850 United States census. With the help of Leamer, Carlson said he read over the census five times. He also had some sources which helped him with finding relatives of some of those listed. Carlson said that the writing was clear by the census recorder. The county also completed a census and he compared the two of them. Carlson said the county census wrote each person’s surname while the federal census only wrote a family name once. Carlson also noted that first names were sometimes different between both census’. Carlson said he focused on Busti, since that is where he presides. He said he is able to connect many of the people in the census with those living there today. In 1850, Busti for example had 1990 residents. A very informative talk was enjoyed by all.

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