30 April 2013

South Dakota 1905 State Census

 These three cards are from the South Dakota, State Census, 1905, which is available on FamilySearch.org.

The cards appear to have been filmed alphabetically, which is not the way they are arranged here. Loid's was first, Louis' was second, and Mary's was last in the arrangement of the cards on the FamilySearch.org site. I am not certain if there are actual census sheets from which these cards were made.

The cards do have places of birth for the enumerees and their parents. Louis' father was actually born in Ohio, not in Sutter, Illinois. While one cannot be certain who provided the information, it would be reasonable to surmise that Mary did--as Louis would probably have known where his father was born. Louis' father died in 1893 and Mary probably never met him (given her marriage into the Rampley family in the early 1900s). She could easily have just assumed her father-in-law was born where her husband was born as that was where the family had lived for some time. Louis' mother was alive when the Rampleys were married--in fact she lived until the 1920s, so Mary knew her and may have been more inclined to know the state of her mother-in-law's birth.


I had hoped that Mary's card would have given more information on the specifics of where her parents were born, but only Ireland was listed.

The card for "Loid" Rampley shown below is the Rampley's only child. The child's name is actually Lloyd.


The household structure here has been surmised from the cards being put in "card number" order. These cards were filmed in alphabetical order so viewing neighbors is not possible. I only located these cards by browsing after finding Mary Rampley. If there are individuals

The Rampleys were in the Dakotas for less than ten years and it was hoped that the cards would provide some additional information, but that was not the case. The family returned to southern Hancock County, Illinois, by the 1920 census enumeration and remained there until their deaths. Louis Rampley is a brother to Fannie (Rampley) Neill (1883-1965), my great-grandmother and Mary  is a sister to Charlie Neill (1875-1948), my great-grandfather.

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