DELAWARE

Census Reports

1790 – 1950

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UPDATED MARCH 24, 2024

Delaware is tiny, but it was the first state in the Union. Delaware was in a state of flux until the Mason-Dixon line established its boundaries, as well as those of Pennsylvania and Maryland in 1763.

Being the first established state, in 1787, it has had it's own Census reports right from the start in 1790. There are only three counties in the state, so it is fairly easy to find folks here. Problem is there are very few Putnams or Putmans to be found in any year, and in seven censuses none at all.

DELAWARE 1790-1800-1810 CENSUS

There were no Putnams nor Putmans listed in these three census reports.

DELAWARE 1820 CENSUS

RICHARD PUTNAM Pencader Hundred, New Castle County

This is a Black family of "Free Colored Persons.". The census listing is 0110-0101. Richard is aged 26 through 44 placing his birth in the 1776-1784 time frame. No ideas where he came from though. He will be here in 1830 as well.

DELAWARE 1830 CENSUS

RICHARD PUTNAM Pencader Hundred, New Castle County

This is a Black family of "Free Colored Persons." The census listing is 001010-211000. Richard is aged 55-99 placing his birth before 1776. Oddly, that age doesn't really match Richard's stated age in 1820. Nothing is known about this family so anything is possible. This is the last time we see Richard. No one connected to Richard that we know of is here in 1850 and they all seem to disappear. No clues at all.

DELAWARE 1840 CENSUS

There were no Putnams nor Putmans listed.

DELAWARE 1850 CENSUS

JAMES PUTNAM 3rd District Wilmington, New Castle County

He is 56 Ireland, a laborer living in a rooming house.

DELAWARE 1860 CENSUS

OWEN (ORLANDO) PUTNAM Little Creek, Kent County

He is 29 NY, and a public school teacher His wife listed as Jane is really Judith Nixon Harris 28 NJ and her mom, Ruth Harris 56 NJ, is with them. He is actually Orlando Monroe Putnam a son of Calvin Putnam (1851) and his second wife Ann Clark from Cortland County New York. He was born there in 1831. He was at home in 1840, with his brother Calvin in Ocean County New Jersey single in 1850. He married Judith around 1858-59 in New Jersey. They are back in Somerset County New Jersey in 1870 and 1880. Orlando will die there July 1, 1883. Judith will be around in 1900 though. She will die January 29, 1910.

JAMES PUTNAM Pencaster, New Castle County

He is 60 DE and a single black man. I guess they didn't count blacks back when or he would have been listed in past years. I wonder if the Richard way back when was black or not, maybe same family. I have no idea, but this guy has been here all his life.

DELAWARE 1870 CENSUS

GEORGIA & ANDERSON PUTMAN Mispillion Hundred, Kent County

She is 8 DE, he is 4 DE. They live with Mark and Lydia Scotto, both in their late 50s from DE.

JOSEPH B. (BILLINGS) PUTNAM Wilmington, New Castle County

He is a blacksmith 52 MA, Sarah Hayward Bickum his wife is 46 MA and Sarah Eliza 24 MA. He is number 2401, a son of Joseph Putnam (1069) and Elizabeth Danforth of Newburyport, Massachusetts. They were in Wilmington, Massachusetts in 1850 and 1860, and will return there shortly. Have no idea what they are doing here, maybe just wanted to visit another Wilmington someplace.

DELAWARE 1880 CENSUS

There were no Putnams or Putmans indexed.

DELAWARE 1900 CENSUS

There were no Putnams, Putmans or any kinfolk indexed.

DELAWARE 1910 CENSUS

RAYMOND L. (LESTER) PUTNAM New Castle, New Castle County

He is 37 NJ NJ NJ, Mary Louise Hubbs 32 NJ, Mary E. 9 NJ, Martha L. 6 NJ, Sarah L. 4 NJ and Naomi 9/12 NJ. He is a son of Benjamin Putnam and Mary Mannering of Newark, New Jersey. He and Mary were in Camden County, New Jersey in 1900 and will be in Gloucester County, New Jersey by 1920. New England Putnam line.

DELAWARE 1920 CENSUS

TRAVERS D. PUTMAN Middletown, New Castle County

He is 31 AL (KY) KY KY, Emma 24 VA NY VA, and Travers Junior 4 5/12 VA. He is a son of Robert E. Lee Putnam of Bell County, Kentucky, and was home there in 1900. Travers was in the Army in Chesapeake, Virginia in 1910. The son Travers will be back with his grandmother in Kentucky in 1930. This line came out of Sutton Massachusetts in the 1700s and Joseph Washington Putnam came to Louisville, Kentucky and the family stayed in central Kentucky to this day. Don’t find them in 1930 but Travers is in Baltimore, Maryland by 1935 divorced and still there in 1940.

DELAWARE 1930 CENSUS

There are no Putnams or Putmans indexed in Delaware in 1930.

DELAWARE 1940 CENSUS

GLEN PUTNAM Bellefonte, New Castle County

He is 25 WA OH OH and single. He is a son of Grover Lewis Putnam and Vernice Bonswitt or Bonswait. Glen Carlyle Putnam was born September 8, 1914 in Lincoln County Washington and at home with them in Kittitas County Washington in 1930. He was single in Ellensburg, Washington in 1935. He will die at age 97 in Orange County Texas December 26, 2007 and be buried here in Delaware. His dad Grover was born in Scott Township, Sandusky County on January 23, 1889. The family descends from Andrew Butman/Putman of Maryland and then Somerset County Pennsylvania. Grover was a teacher in Ohio, and moved out to Washington State to be Superintendent of the Colville school system. German family from Pennsylvania.

DELAWARE 1950 CENSUS

STEARNS T. (TYLER) PUTNAM Roselle, New Castle County

He is 33 VT (writing says he is only 31 but no), and a research chemist in a chemical company. His wife Pearl Elizabeth Corliss is 32 VT and they have Carol Lee 6 DE and Stephen Tyler 4 DE. He is a son of Solon James Putnam and Stella Kale Rice and was born July 30, 1917 in Springfield, Windsor County Vermont and will die May 7, 1995 in Okaloosa, Florida. He was home with his folks there in 1920. His dad died in a lumbering accident in 1926 and he was with his widowed mother Stella in 1930 in Springfield where she was a teacher. He married Pearl in Springfield March 30, 1940 and they were there in the 1940 census. Pearl Elizabeth Corliss, daughter of Frank Wilson Corliss and Maude Augusta Cragin, was born on July 20, 1917 in Springfield, Windsor, Vermont and will die in Wilmington, Delaware February 18, 2013. The daughter Carol Lee will marry David Dudley Wood in Cambridge, Massachusetts September 12, 1964. The son Stephen Tyler will marry Mary Gwyn Richardson in 1975.