The census register has been transcribed from microfilm. As always, errors may occur both in the original and as a result of the transcription. In this case, the Register was itself a transcription adding yet another point at which errors were introduced. The absence of an individual cannot be considered proof that they were not in the enumerated township or town. Also, any names you do find may have been incorrectly recorded. Some of the entries used very creative spellings. Others were very difficult to read. Some handwriting was scrawlled so that the "e", "i", and "o" look the same. Overall, the quality of the final transcribed register can only be assessed as "fair."
The 1905 Census Register of Story County, Iowa is contained in a volume titled Residents of Iowa 1905 Story County. It contains, for the most part, only the census card number, name and post office address of each resident of the county as of January 1, 1905 organized by township or town. The names are organized in the following sequence which implies relationships: head of household, wife, children oldest to youngest, others in household.
The 1905 census itself was written on separate cards for each individual which were then abstracted to the Register. The cards were numbered within each township or town entity starting with the number one. Much information is found on the cards of family research value. Of special note are the number of years in the United States and the number of years in Iowa. These cards are available on microfilm at the State Historical Society of Iowa in Des Moines. The filming was done very poorly with cards arranged out of order. To find particular cards takes some effort. For those with no access to the library, a local researcher may be the only recourse.
Because each person was recorded on separate cards, sometimes the family surname is recorded with more than one spelling. For example, in Lafayette township are found contiguous cards with surnames spelled: WASTHUN, VASTUN, and WASTHUN, but they were probably all the same family.
The following data is recorded in the Register:
The page number shown on the census pages is the relative page number derived from the page's location in the book. The page number is not printed in the book itself.
One of the interesting things in the register are the post office addresses. These show how people could have a post office that is located in different township or even county than the one they resided in. For example, people in Collins township had post office addresses in New Albany township (Colo), Indian Creek township (Maxwell), and Marshall County (Rhodes).
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