By Karen Coombs

Census has been a part of people’s lives for many thousands of years. At the time of the birth of Christ, his parents went to Bethlehem to be counted and taxed. This was a census. The earliest census for the United States is the 1790. The time period will differ for each country but the principles are the same. We will concentrate on the United States since all of us have ancestors who lived in the United States.

In the United States the federal census was taken every 10 years. Each time different questions were asked. Some years give us genealogical clues—others give us insight into our ancestors’ lives.

A census is designed to count every person living in a particular area. The country was broken up into smaller jurisdictions with the state being in charge of collection. The states were then broken down into county, town, and enumeration districts.

The enumerator went door-to-door asking the questions, writing the answers on a note pad. Then at some other time he filled out the specific forms. The forms were then copied again and sent to the federal government.

Problems You Might Encounter:

· People not at home. The neighbors gave the information.

· People not remembering how old they really were—intentional or confused.

· People being skipped.

· Copying mistakes.

· Refusal to answer.

· Handwriting of the enumerator.

· Spelling—enumerator spelled as he heard it.

Things To Be Aware Of:

· Boundary changes in districts, counties, or states.

· Extension of time given because censuses were not finished on time. This affects how old someone would say they were.

· 1790-1840 censuses are head-of-household only with a mark for every family member.

· 1890 census destroyed by fire.

· 1850-1930 censuses have every person listed with additional information.

Where To Find Census Records:

· Ancestry

· Family Search

· ProQuest

· Cyndi’s List

How To Search:

· Be sure to understand what the indexes include—are they every name or head-of-household.

· When searching indexes use all spelling variations.

· First names could be different—initial, abbreviation, middle name, nickname, etc.

Genealogical Information Found In the Census Other Than Names:

· 1880 – Relationship to head-of-household.

· 1900 – Birth date – month and year.

· 1900 – Year of immigration.

· 1910 – How many children born to a mother and how many are still living.

· 1910 – How many years married.

· 1930 – How old they were at marriage.

Other Censuses:

· Some states have censuses available for the intermediate 5 year periods.

· Look for any special censuses—such as, mortality, veterans, staves, agriculture, African-American, and Native American.