According to the 1880 United States census mortality schedule, Henry Miller died in Brown County, Illinois, in March of 1880. The eighty-one year old resident of Pea Ridge Township and native of Hanover died of old age.

It’s worth noting that the enumeration does not state that he died in Pea Ridge Township. While he probably died there (or nearby) the mortality schedule is a list of Pea Ridge Township residents who died in the twelve months preceding the census enumeration date. It’s not a list of individuals who died in the township.

Miller’s enumeration indicated that he would have appeared in family 138 had he been living. It’s always worth checking out that family to see who they are.

In this case it was worth checking out as Miller’s information is included in that household and then scratched out. That doesn’t mean the information is inaccurate. It just means that he should not have been counted. Henry Miller is listed as an eighty-one year old widow and the father-in-law of Henry Adams, a fifty-six year old farmer.

Ank[e], Henry Adams fifty-one year old wife, was the daughter of Henry Miller and his wife Gesche.

It always pays to look at the household where the dead person should have been enumerated they may have been listed.

And it’s also worth remembering that there may be a reason behind a listing being “crossed out.”