I've surpassed the half-way mark of looking up each Parmelee family from every indexed U.S. census.

Some of the first census schedules have been lost over the years -- the early New Jersey records, in particular, thanks to the British burning Washington in the War of 1812. Virtually all of the 1890 census went up in smoke in a fire--only the names of 6,160 people remain out of 63 million. Attempts have been made to recreate some early headcounts with property tax records, jury lists, cattle markings and tavern licenses.

Many of the states that are indexed for 1870 and '80 are lists of only families that had children. I'm happy to say that I've recently purchased the entire 1870 census on disks and will scour them for the family; many civic, genealogical and historical groups are trying to index the rest of the families for 1880. As a result, I'm biding my time and leaving the 1880 headcount for last.

I have looked at all the slave indexes for 1850 and '60 for all the counties in the slave states that also contained white Parmelees. Sad to say, many of these schedules are very faded and are very hard to read.

Lastly, the key for this chart:

Notes:

*1790: Delaware, Georgia, New Jersey, Tennessee schedules have been lost. The territories of Michigan and Wisconsin were occupied by British forces.
*1800: Michigan, New Jersey and Virginia schedules are lost.
*1810: New Jersey schedules have been lost.
*1820: New Jersey schedules have been lost.
**1890: Virtually all schedules were lost in a fire. The records checked here are from an 1890 Civil War veterans and widows census.