with the 1890 US census records being 90% or more destroyed what is the first set of records
that you can research to help overcome that lack whole of information state census records mm-hmm
howdy I am Debbie Noah weed with family history fanatics and if you're just joining this special
collaboration with Lisa Lee ascend from are you my cousin we are in video 2 about how do we overcome
the 1890 census records loss if you have missed any of the previous episodes be sure to look in
the description or the info cards that will flash across your screen that will take you to these
census play Olaf and today our goal is how to help you take the overwhelm added genealogy research
let's get started today's video focuses on state census records now not every state took censuses
or enumerated their citizens so you have to be one of the lucky few with ancestors from states
or territories that had these enumerations the reason why some states didn't take census counting
is they didn't have to they weren't required to do so by federal law so it was up to each state to
make that decision and a number of states chose not to let me give you a quick visual guide to
the states that do not have census records they include my family in Ohio darn it so if you had
ancestors from any of these states go ahead and skip this video because it's not going to apply
to you but if you do have ancestors from any of the other states then stay stick around you also
have to remember that your state needs to have existed and taking census records during this
time period for you to search and 21 states did take a census enumeration or territory enumeration
1885 to 1895 that's the only time these states took their census records right oh no no that's
a myth let's debunk that myth right now the states and former territories that are now state got to
decide how often they needed to enumerate their citizens I found that in some territories that
are trying to become state state you numerated more often and there's probably geopolitical
reasons why they were doing that such as trying to count their citizens to make this sure they
have enough for statehood and then allocate the proper representation within the state makes sense
so they will enumerate their citizens more often but there's a number of other reasons that could
have taken place so just be sure that you check for the years on that US Census Bureau link to
figure out what years may exist may may may exist for your state's so Indiana had a census in 1883
and 1889 so you have a census that is shortly after that 1880 federal census and then really
very close to the census that would have happened in 1890 pretty cool Washington state had a census
every two years it seemed 1881 1883 1887 1889 you get the idea my goodness would you like to have a
relative from Washington it would be a lot of great information now keep in mind that even
though the states and territories territories enumerated their citizens more often not all
census records exists for every part of the state so you will have to go and read up on the specific
census records for the specific States to find out if you have struck it rich and you have those
records for the ancestors you're researching but if you didn't know these records existed you can't
go searching for them okay speaking searching for them where are we going to find the census records
where they housed census records may be found at State Archives State Historical Society's state
libraries and many other online resources there are state census collections on ancestry.com you
need find them by going to the census and voter list and then you can be at an access your state
from this site and then use the form search and now you're just searching the state census record
collection on ancestry with nothing else now I'll be honest I usually don't try to navigate through
ancestry to their collection if I am looking for a collection I'll google it this is what I do I
go to Google and I type in Michigan State census 1884 and then when I get my search results then
I can see what repositories and online databases has that collection and I just go there so that's
my quick way to find that instead of navigating through the card catalog if you're still having
difficulties looking for the census records I would advise going over to the family search wiki
and looking for your individual States and then click on census and then see what the wiki says
about the state record collection they'll be have a quick guide as to what census records exist and
where there's gaps maybe the whole census record it was taken but then it no longer exists maybe
certain counties exist so if you want to find the gaps go to the family search wiki another resource
that can help you track down the elusive state census records is research guides with an S dotnet
whoa that's a lot of information I hope that you will check out the state census records for your
specific States and if you're lucky you're gonna have more than just a listing under the head of
collaborative series where Lisa will talk about my favorite record collection city directories