Daily AncestorFamily number
The family number counted households in the order visited; in census use a family meant everyone eating and living together, related or not.
The 1850 instructions define a family as one person living alone or a group living together on one common means of support. A widow alone was a family, and so were 200 people living together under one common head. The residents of a hotel, jail or asylum counted as one family.
In 1870 and 1880 a hotel or boarding house with all its guests was a single family. So a family number can cover boarders and servants who were no kin. In 1940 the column became the number of the household.
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Family number." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/census-terms/family-number. Last checked 2026-10-03.