the US federal census is one of the best-known tools for researching your family history
whether you are a novice or a veteran of using the census there is always more to
learn about this fascinating record set today on the ancestral findings podcast I'll give
you the top five questions genealogists of all levels have about the census and their answers
if you are a beginning genealogist or an experienced one you have undoubtedly used
census records in your research at the very least you have heard of them and how important
they are in uncovering your family history and believe it or not no matter how long you have
been using census records there are always new and interesting things to learn about them that
can help take your research even farther there is hidden information in the census records you
may not have noticed no matter how many times you've looked at an entry whether you are new
to census records or have been using them for years here are the answers to five frequently
asked questions about them you need to know to make sure you are using them to get the most
information out of them and onto your family tree number one what years have census records
available beginning in 1790 the United States took a census of the entire country every ten
years this tradition is still continuing today the census records are divided by state then
county then city or town however this does not mean the exact census you are looking for will
be available many counties and entire states have had their records lost in the earliest
censuses usually the ones between 1790 and 1830 and of course there is the infamous case of the
entirely vanished 1890 census which was destroyed in a fire in the 1930s leaving family historians
across the country with a frustrating 20-year gap in their research records also a federal
law prohibits census records from being released to the public for 72 years after they were taken
to protect individual privacy so far all records that exist from 1790 to 1940 have been released
the 1950 census is scheduled to be released to the public on April 1st 2022 number 2 what makes the
census from 1850 onward print from the earlier ones beginning with the 1850 census the names
and ages of everyone in a household were recorded prior to that in the 1792 1840 census records only
the names of the heads of households were listed though those censuses included tallies of how many
people of each gender in one of several different age groups lived in the house with the head of
household the 1820 to 1840 census also include a tally of the number gender and age groups of any
slaves owned by the head of household if you know anything at all about the family you are looking
up you can often turn those tally marks into names the tally marks may also reveal family
members such as additional children or second or third spouses you may have never known existed
therefore it is important to not discount the early census records just because they only
named the head of household looking more deeply into them reveals far more number three do the
census records include more information than just names yes they do but it depends on the census the
1840 census for example includes a column that lets you know whether the head of household was
a Revolutionary War veteran this can be helpful for confirming revolutionary service for lineage
society applications ages begin to be listed in the 1850 census relationships to the head
of household year of immigration to the United States if applicable whether naturalized or not
the birthplace of the parents of everyone listed and whether they own or rent a house or farm are
listed on the 1880 census the 1900 census gives month and day of birth of every person and also
lists how many children a woman has had and how many of them are living as well as listing how
long married people have been married and what number of marriages it is for them in the 1940
census you can find out how much schooling each listed person completed as of the taking of the
census occupations of each person are generally listed from the 1880 census onward other census
records include things like whether a person had a physical or mental handicap whether they could
read or write how many weeks they had worked and been out of work that year how much their property
was worth and even the name of the street they lived on number four what do you do if you can't
find your ancestor in the census records while some people were overlooked in certain census
records because they were moving and in-between residences such as people migrating west they
weren't home the person giving the information forgot to include them or deliberately did not or
were genuinely trying to hide from census takers the vast majority of people who seemed lost in any
given census year are actually there you just may have to employ some creative searching methods to
find them if the person had a hard to pronounce or unusual last name the census taker may have
made a best guess as to what the name was and how to spell it especially if the person giving the
information couldn't read or write the person transcribing census records for indexes may
not have been able to read the census takers handwriting and miss transcribe your ancestor
you can often find the person you're looking for by searching their neighborhood manually if you
are using digital census records you can search by first name and age only place of birth only gender
only or do wildcard searches for the last name where certain letters can be anything or you can
use any combination of these methods to find your ancestor number five where our searchable census
records located in the old days of genealogy you would have to go to a genealogy library look up
a name in a printed index and then get to a roll of microfilm corresponding to that name and scroll
through to find your person or just browse a whole neighborhood if no name was in the index
you can still search this way however there are many places online with digitized images of the
census many of which have been indexed and you merely have to type in a person's name
and location to find the image with their name on it ancestry.com is the best-known place to
do this other sites have full or partial US census records for searching online such as
full three u.s. gen web american ancestors.org the websites of local historical societies a more
whether you are new to genealogy or a veteran your work can only benefit from a refresher
in these basic genealogy do's and don'ts next time I'll share the things you need
to know to make your work shine copyright by ancestral findings all rights reserved
you