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Some History
The U.S. began taking a census in 1790 and has taken one every ten years since. Census records from 1790 to 1930 are available to the public. Post-1930 censuses are not available due to privacy laws. Later censuses tend to include more information than earlier ones.
Some Tips
• Sometimes not all members of a household were home when the census taker came. This means that a child or a neighbor could have given the census information and it may be inaccurate.
• When looking for a last name, think phonetically!! The census taker was told the person’s name and then he wrote it down the way it sounded. Spelling was not standardized for many years.
• Don’t be surprised if the ages are not exact and vary between censuses.
• Look for neighbors because relatives often lived near one another.
Finding Census Records
The 1880 census is free on FamilySearch.org. All censuses are available at Ancestry.com, which is free at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah and at several Family History Centers. Many censuses are also available at HeritageQuestOnline.com, which is free through many public libraries.
Genealogical Stuff
All censuses 1850–1930 contain the name of each person in the household, age, sex, occupation, and state or country of birth. Besides this, each census also contains:
1930, began 2 April 1930
Address, relationship to head of household, whether they own or rent their home, value of home, whether they have a radio set, color or race, marital status, age at first marriage, parents’ birthplaces, when they were naturalized (became a U.S. citizen), whether a veteran of any war
1920, began 1 January 1920
Address, relationship to head of household, whether own or rent home, marital status, year of immigration to the U.S., year of naturalization, parents’ birthplaces
1910, began 15 April 1910
Address, relationship to head of household, number of years of present marriage, number of children born, number of children still living, parents’ birthplaces, year of immigration, whether a survivor of the Union or Confederate Army or Navy
1900, began 1 June 1900
Address, relationship to head of household, month and year of birth, marital status, number of children born, number of children still living, parents’ birthplaces, year of immigration, whether naturalized
1890, began 1 June 1890
Most records destroyed by fire in 1921. Less than one percent of the records now exist.
1880, began 1 June 1880
Address, relationship to head of household, parents’ birthplaces
1870, began 1 June 1870 (census takers had five months to complete it)
Value of real estate (land), value of personal estate (items like furniture), whether parents were born outside the U.S.
1860, began 1 June 1860 (had five months to complete)
Value of real estate, value of personal estate
1850, began 1 June 1850 (had five months to complete)
Value of real estate
1790–1840 censuses contain the name of each head of household and marks for the gender and general ages of persons within each household.
State Census Records
Many states also took censuses. These were generally inconsistent (not taken routinely every ten years) and just depended on if a state needed one for political purposes, etc. They often fall between federal census years, like 1855, 1865, etc.
To find them, go to the Family History Library Catalog. Click on “place search” then type in the state you want. Then go to “census” and see what is available.
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