Census: an Invaluable Pool

A population census is an excellent tool to find information about families and breaking through brickwalls.

In the United States census taking began in 1790 and has continued every ten years.  In Canada population census began in 1851 and was also taken every ten years.  In England population census began in 1841 and continued every ten years.  Because of rights of privacy, the United States does not open the census to the public for seventy years.  As a consequence, the 1940 census in only now being made public.

There is a significant volunteer effort to index the 1940 census at FamilySearch Indexing.  Anyone interested can download a free program and then view a page of the census and fill a table with specific information from that page of the census.  The indexer’s work is checked against a second indexer and discrepancies are arbitrated.  Once the work of indexing a state is complete, it becomes searchable.

The US census from 1790 through 1840 included only the names of heads of household and then numbers indicating males or females within specific age ranges.   The following example is from Somerset county, Pennsylvania.

Beginning with 1850, all members of the household are listed along with gender, age, race and place of birth by state or country.  Sometimes occupation was listed as well.  Each succeeding census asked new questions.  By 1880 the place of birth of both parents is provided.  By 1900 the month and year of birth are given as well as how many children the mother has had and how many are still alive.

Census records provide interesting information, but it is not necessarily accurate.  Consider the census a great guideline and tool to find additional information.

Some challenges found when searching the census are missing family members, incorrect ages, and different names.  For example, in the 1880 an eleven year old child might be listed who wasn’t in the 1870 census.  Theoretically, the child should have been one in the 1870 census.  A couple of possibilities might answer this dilemma:  first, he or she was really only ten in 1880 and had not been born at the time of the 1870 census; or second, the child was an infant and was omitted from the 1870 census.  Unlike the recent census that was mailed to households, historically a census taker (enumerator) would walk from household to household collecting information.  If the family wasn’t home, it was possible a neighbor might have provided the information and only estimated ages.

The census will be an invaluable tool for research.