the u.s 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 10 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 two what makes the census from 1850 onward different 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 1790 to 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 censuses 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 name 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 seem 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 taker's handwriting and mistranscribe 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 wild card 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 are 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 u.s census records for searching online such as fold 3
us gen web american ancestors.org the websites of local historical societies and more
thanks for listening to the ancestral findings podcast it's greatly appreciated and be sure to
visit ancestralfindings.com to download a free genealogy ebook you can also sign up for the
weekly historical postcard giveaway hey i hope you have a wonderful day and happy searching