Census Records

These are the United States Federal Census or State Census records supporting the genealogical details and cited on the Family Genealogy pages. The US Census is available every ten years from 1790 to 1940. Information on individuals is released after 72 years, so 1960 Census will be not be released until 2032.

Notes:

• All citations referring to census data are based on my own transcription from the image. Ancestry.com and other on-line sources usually transcribe only enough text to allow the page to be found by searches. Also bulk transcriptions often have errors due to census taker handwriting, etc.
   
• Census records document name, age, country of birth, residence, etc. The more Census facts that match between different Censuses or other documents, the more certain that they represent the same individual. Census takers may misspell names or get any other data wrong.
   
• Census records with multiple family members in the same or neighboring households help establish connections between families by making relationships explicit and help establish those relationshis.
   
• The 1900, 1910, and 1930 Censuses give marriage date in various forms - 1900/1910 years of present marriage, 1930 age at first marriage. This requires a bit of calculation to get a readable date.
   
• Birth dates derived from Census ages can be one year high because the Census may be taken earlier in the year than the individuals birth date. Census citations transcribe the date the data was collected so the actual birth years can be calculated.. The individual or parent responding to the census may guess the wrong age. The 1900 Census recorded the month and year of birth.
   
• The Census from 1790 through 1840 only have the name of the head-of-household, and counts of other persons by age range and sex. This is complex to analyze because each Census used different age rages. In a few cases, I have done the work using a graphical chart (I shoul dprobably write a program). Sometimes this may be accurrate enough to prove an identity. Such censuses can confuse a son and a father with the same name. A woman as the head of household can be evidence of the death of her husband.
   
• Some Census records have been lost and some people are just overlooked or missed. Also a transcription error in the name may make that particular Census hard to find. Sometimes various tricks or just reading images is necessary.
   
• Handwriting is often hard to interpret. You may have to compare writings on the same page or by the same census taker. Watch out for character decenders confusing the line below.