About the U.S. Census

The United States has taken a population census every decade since 1790. The early census records were limited in scope, listing the head of household, number of inhabitants, their ages, whether they were related or not, amount of land owned, and number of slaves owned.

As the decades passed, the detail of information grew to include every resident's name, age, relationship, and other pertinent data. Beginning in 1880, a system called Soundex was used to catalog census information cards based on the sound of the surname. (See the article in this Census Records section of the Genealogy Forum on Soundex.) A later version of this was Miracode, similar to Soundex but the information on the cards was organized differently.

U.S. census records are available for every decade except 1890. Most of those records were destroyed by a fire in Washington, DC, in 1921. Scant remains of the census records of that decade. However, all census records for the other decades through 1930 are available on microfilm.

There are several problems you'll encounter as you try to use census records.

Many records are not indexed. This means you have to know where the individuals were located that you're searching for. This involves understanding what county, parish, or township you need to search. Bear in mind that political boundaries changed over the years. One county may have split into two; two townships may have combined into one; unincorporated areas may have become towns; towns may have combined. For example, in the 1960s, the NC towns of Leaksville, Spray, and Draper merged into a single town called Eden, NC. These types of political geography changes may be confusing and send you down the wrong path. CHECK MAPS FROM THE TIME PERIOD YOU'RE RESEARCHING TO CONFIRM THAT YOU'LL BE SEARCHING THE RIGHT CENSUS RECORDS.

When dealing with unindexed census records, please be aware that census enumeration district information can help you decipher where to look for your ancestors. Enumeration districts are simply divisions of census areas used to define boundaries for the enumerators, or census takers. If areas were already divided up into wards, the ward was oftentimes used as the enumeration disctrict. Other times, because of sheer size and population, subdivisions were used. If you have an address and have consulted a political map showing the boundaries in place at the time, you can often fine tune your search to a census enumeration district and make your microfilm search easier.

Another problem you may have is in reading the handwriting of the census taker. While some obviously excelled in their penmanship, others wrote in a cramped or spidery hand. Another problem is that some census takers used fine point fountain pen nibs or pencil. This makes the microfilm records much less legible that we'd wish. However, after a few hours' experience reading microfilm, you'll start to become a handwriting expert, cracking even the worst handwriting.

Note, too, that census takers didn't always spell names correctly. You'll often be challenging the spelling of one form of proof against another. Was the spelling on the tombstone correct or was the census spelling correct? Was the maiden name on the marriage license correctly spelled?

Please note that the Privacy Act in the U.S. protects individuals' right to privacy regarding information of a personal nature. Census records are protected for a period of 72 years. The next census records to be released for public access will be those of 1940, which will be made available in the year 2012.

Consult the reference librarian at your local public library for more information about access to the U.S. census records. They can be an invaluable source of help in your search for your family tree.

Written and contributed by George G. Morgan

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