THE ED's & WARDS follow below... Brooklyn..5 Dutch Towns Also : So essential when trying to determine the Enumeration/Assembly Districts are MAPS A small intro....from N.A.R.A. The microfilm reproductions are on 156 rolls of 35 film 513 original volumes of descriptions of geographic subdivisions (enumeration districts) that were used in the decennial United States censuses from 1830 to 1950. These records are part of Record Group 29, Records of the Bureau of the Census. The Census subdivisions or enumeration district served as the basic geographic area of a size that could be covered by a single census taker (enumerator) within one census period. It may have been as large as one county or as small as part of a city block. The term "subdivision," referring to a part of the supervisor's or marshall's division or district, was used in the early censuses. With the 1880 census the term changed to "enumeration district" & the census taker was officially called an "enumerator." With the early 'subdivision' use the Street ward index and the maps as finding aids. From FORGOTTEN NEW YORK New York City used to have political designations called wards, which were the smallest political units in NYC. Each ward elected an alderman and an assistant alderman to the City Council. According to The Encyclopedia Of New York City (1995, Yale University Press) the system goes all the way back to 1686, when Governor Thomas Dongan divided the city, then entirely in Manhattan, into six wards. In 1791, wards were given numerical designations. The First Ward was the tip of Manhattan, and districts were given consecutive numbers the further north you went in Manhattan. New wards were added as the city expanded northward,and increasing population of the older wards required subdivision. The "ward boss", the local provider of patronage and vote gatherer, was a most important element in the power of Tammany Hall, the pre-eminent political machine in the latter half of the 19th Century. Ward politics diminished in stature beginning with the 20th Century, and wards were formally abolished in 1938. Brooklyn was also composed of wards. When it became a city in 1837, it was divided into nine wards, and by the time of consolidation with New York City in 1898 it had 32 wards.