At one point during my research, I wondered how families with multiple wives would be listed on a census record. I wondered if they would list them all as wives or as separate head of households. I did a search for John D Rees and his families in the 1860, 70 and 80 census. I was a little surprised at what I found...
From looking at different pages and families on census records, I found with a plural marriage family, the Husband is listed with one of his wives under his name, then the other wives would be listed all under the same surname. The only difference is the family numbers on the side would change indicating a different family. As you can see from these two records of the 1870 US Federal Census, at the bottom of the first one, Lorenzo Sann is listed and then his wives and children. The family continues on the next page with more wives and children.
I thought this would be the same for John D Rees and his family. He is listed at the bottom of the second page with his third wife Sela. I thought the rest of the wives must be listed on the next page. When I went to the next page, no other Rees family was listed. I did find his first wife in the same area but listed in a different place on the census.
By the 1880 Census, John had passed away. All of his wives are listed as widows in the census but again in different places. Two of them are still in Brigham City but on different pages. The other wife is in Idaho (refer to previous post to understand why).
To sum up, in 1860, he was listed with his first wife Mary. In 1870, with his third wife Zillah. He was not in the 1880 but again the wives were not listed together. I would love to understand one day the relationship that the three wives and children had together.
1. 1870 US Federal Census, Brigham City, Box Elder, Utah Territory. John D Rees. pg. 10 (Ancestry.com accessed 10 Oct 2015). NARA microfilm publication M593_1610.
Polygamous families and the way they interacted is so interesting!
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