204 History of the New York Census. 



In 1845 a census was taken by marshals appointed in 

 each election district by the supervisors, town clerk and 

 town superintendent of schools, — and like all the pre- 

 ceding enumerations, upon blanks furnished by the secre- 

 tary of state. 



Up to this period inclusive, the returns were made by 

 families, one line being employed for each, and the num- 

 ber coming within certain ages and classes entered in the 

 columns indicated by the headings. The totals footed up 

 by the marshals, were transmitted by the town superin- 

 tendent of schools to the county clerk, where the results 

 of towns were collected into a county summary and re- 

 turned to the secretary's office. 



The labors of the central office were therefore limited 

 to the distribution of the blanks, and the construction of a 

 general table for the state, from the tables prepared by 

 the county clerks. 



It will be at once seen, that this method afforded no 

 clue to any errors that might have been committed in the 

 primary additions. It is susceptable of easy proof, that 

 such errors occurred, and I can point out one single in- 

 stance of an error of 10,000 which crept into one of the 

 footings of a town, affecting not only the results of the 

 county, but of the state, to that extent. Nor was this a 

 solitary example of the mischief liable to result from al- 

 lowing the summaries to be made by many different 

 parties acting without concert, and left to place their own 

 construction upon doubtful entries. 



As for its subject matter, the census of 1845, in addition 

 to that of 1835, with which it compared, it gave a rude 

 classification of place of birth, designating state of New 

 York, New England, and other United States, Mexico 

 and South America, Great Britain and its possessions, 

 France, Germany, and other parts of Europe. 



It also reported the number of children from 5 to 16, 



