From 1790-1820, the states sent only summary data to Washington D.C., and kept their original census documents. The summaries for 1790 through 1810 were destroyed during the War of 1812.

In 1830, Congress required the states to send all pre-1830 original documents to Washington. Some states compiled while others, sent nothing or only partial documentation. As a result, you may find no census materials exist for certain states for certain years, or that only partial records exist. For census years 1830-1885, copies of the original census schedules for each state were sent to Washington D.C., and the original documents were kept by the states. More importantly, the census schedules that ended up in the possession of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) are the originals returned by the states for 1790-1820, submitted between 1830-1885, and the originals for all subsequent enumerations. In the case of the 1870 census schedules, a transcription of a transcription was actually sent.

The census Population Schedule is the most comprehensive of the federal census documents, containing the entries of for each household. The completeness and accuarcy of the enumeration was of course, performed by the enumerator when transcription work done to generate copies has quality or omissions. In towns from 1920-1930, houses, towns, street adresses were enumerated and places with all three in a town were not. It is possible that your ancestor or family member refused to respond to the census taker at all. Also for extended family members, those which occured more often in one census than another, other census years were known to locate neighbors in another census, or neighbors next to them in the previous census. Another consideration is that families that lived next door or close to one another, may have intermarried. A check of marriage records in the area may reveal a marriage between families, in which case a missing family member may have relocated to live with the newly married couple.

The eleventh census of the United States, taken in 1890, was different from all others before or since. The Population Schedule included information on only one household per form, rather than listing multiple households and visitations on the same document. It also included a Veterans and Widows schedule on which Union soldiers, sailors, and marines, or their surviving widows, were to be enumerated. Congress only financed one copy of the documents , as it did for all later censuses.States or counties wishing to obatin a copy for their own records would have had to pay for a transciption for their own files. There is no know request having been received for a state or county copy. All original copies of the census documents were sent to the Census Office. Herman Hollerith, complete a mechanized method of processing data. His system utilized punch cards created by use of a manual keyboard resembling the telegraph key. Clerks were able to process an average of 700 cards per day, after wich tabulators tabulated an average of 2,000 to 3,000 families per day. As a result, over six million persons were counted by Hollerith's machines in a single day.

Once the census was complete, the original documents were placed in cartons and stored. In 1896, the Census Office destroyed all but the population and Union Veterans and Widows schedules. The Population Schedules ended up in the basement of the Commerce Building in Washington D.C. The Veterans and Widows shedules were stored on an upper floor. In 1921, a fire broke out in the basement of the building. Records that had not been destroyed by flames had been inundated with water from firefighter's efforts. The entire remainder of the 1890 census was destroyed in 1934.

Use more than just Population Schedules. The primary type of census document used by the federal government is the Population Schedule.

  • Slave Schedules were used in 1850 and 1860 to determine the numbers, vital statistics, living conditions.
  • Mortality Schedules were used in the 1850-1885 censuses to determine how many persons died in the twelve months prior to Census Day, their vital statistics, duration of illness, and cause of death.
  • Union Veterans and Widows schedules was used in the 1890 census and was used to enumerate the Union veterans of the U.S. Civil War and widows of Union soldiers. This is the only surviving fragment of the 1890 census.
  • Agricultural Schedules were used in the 1840-1890 censuses to determine what agricultral activitywas being conducted, the value of the land and agricultral output, and production in some key products. These can be used to determine the location and sixe of ancestor's land holdings, the commodities in which he was engaged in producing, and the livestock owned.
  • Industry/ Manufacturing schedules were used in the 1810-1910 censuses.
  • Defective, Dependent, Delinquent Class Schedules were used only in the 1880 census.
  • Social Statistics Schedules were used in the 1850-1880 censuses. They include information that can be used as a resource to locate specific types of institutions in these years, and traces of any surviving records.
  • City Directories
  • Telephone directories
  • Land and property records
  • Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps were used in the United States to clearly document urban areas for property and casualty insurance purposes from 1867-1970. These maps provide street-by-street deatils concerning buildings, the material used in their construction, the use of the building, and other information. Additional other maps of subareas were used to detail the actual shape of an individual building, and compare it against an enumeration district map in order to home-in on an ancestor's census records.

Indexes to the 1790-1870 federal census are available for most states in book form and can be found in many public libraries with genealogical collection. HeritageQuest online. The LDS or has indexed the 1880 U.S. federal censues. No images are available. In addition to the federal censuses, at certain times a number of the individual states have conducted their own census enumerations. These typically occured halfway between the decennial federal enumerations, at the half-decade mark.

For ancestors location in the census, the sound-alike indexing system, such as Soundex and Miracode resources are two forms that were used in the indexing of census schedules for 1880-1930 and were used for some states in the 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930 censuses.

  • 1880- Includes only those households with children ages 10 years and younger
  • 1900- Complete for all households with separate cards for each adult whose surname differed from the head of the household.
  • 1910- Includes only 21 states
    • Alabama
    • Arkansas
    • California
    • Florida
    • Georgia
    • Illinois
    • Kansas
    • Kentucky
    • Louisiana
    • Missouri
    • Mississippi
    • Minnestoa
    • North Carolina
    • Ohio
    • Oklahoma
    • Pennsylvania
    • South Carolina
    • Tennessee
    • Texas
    • Virginia
    • West Virginia
  • 1920- Includes all states as well as U.S territories at the time
    • Alabama
    • Hawaii
    • the Canal Zone
    • Puerto Rico
    • Guam
    • American Samoa
    • the Virgin Islands
    • many military and naval institutions
  • 1930- Includes only 12 states
    • Alabama
    • Arkansas
    • Florida
    • Georgia
    • Kentucky
    • Louisiana
    • Mississippi
    • North Carolina
    • South Carolina
    • Tennessee
    • Virginia
    • West Virginia

     

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