The Annotated 1900 Census Of Wayne County

Howard Osburn, a member of our society, has completed a new 1900 census of Wayne County. An earlier version was done many years ago, but was very difficult to use. It was divided into 13 sections, with 13 indexes. Neither was it well annotated. It also had about 250 families missing.

After more than a year of labor, this new version is available. It was extracted from the original microfilm. As many of you know, much of the handwriting was nearly unreadable, with many phonetic spellings. Every effort was made, through much research, to provide the proper names of as many persons as possible.

The entire census was then converted to an alphabetical format, while keeping the original numbering system. At this stage, the census was just over 300 pages. Then the really hard and time consuming work began in supplying as much information on every individual as could be found. Every document and book available was combed, looking for information. In the end, about 80% of the entire population was annotated in some degree. Parents of the father and mother are included, along with spouses of the children and also the parents of the spouses. Along with this, wedding dates are added whenever they can be found. Completed, the book contains 620 pages.

One of the aspects of this publication, which seems to have never been before included, are a multitude of death dates. All in all, this is a great publication. It may be purchased directly from Howard Osburn. Make check payable to him and send to Howard Osburn, P.O. Box 65, Wayne, WV 25570. His email address is ozzie304@aol.com. The price is $60 plus $7 shipping.