FILLING OUT THE FAMILY: CENSUSES IN FAMILY HISTORY
©Copyright 2011 by Donald R. Snow
Sections of the Class Notes
Return to the Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group Home Page or Don Snow's Class Listings Page .
This page was last updated 2011-03-01.
WELCOME AND WHAT THIS CLASS IS ALL ABOUT
- Instructors are Donald R. and Diane M. Snow ( snowd@math.byu.edu and dmsnow34@gmail.com ) of Provo and St. George, Utah.
- These notes with active Internet links are posted on the Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group website http://uvtagg.org > Class Outlines > Don Snow's Listings . Many other class notes for family history are posted there, too.
- Note: holding down the Ctrl key while clicking on a link here will open the link in a new window so you can keep your place in these notes.
- This class is about finding and using some of the censuses that are posted online.
ABOUT CENSUSES
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Interesting things in censuses -- check out the occupation shown for Sarah Piersol born about 1801 and living with her son Lewis Piersol in the 1880 US Census -- https://www.familysearch.org
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Good reference – "The Census Book" by William Dollarhide, 1991 -- pdf of entire
book can be downloaded from HeritageQuest Online -- details below
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Why censuses are so helpful in FH
- Types of censuses we will discuss -- federal, state, and church
- Availability due to privacy laws
- In US, after 72 years, so up through 1930 available now; 1940 will be released Apr 2012
- In UK, after 100 years, so up through 1911 available now
- For questions asked in each US census
- See census forms on FamilySearch's Learn (Wiki)-- type in "US Federal Censuses" (without the quote marks) on the "Learn" page
- Also in Dollarhide's "The Census Book", on Ancestry.com, on the PAF CDs from the Distribution Centers, and several other places
- Dates the US censuses were supposedly taken -- refer https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/United_States_Federal_Census
- 1790-1820 - First Monday in August
- 1830-1880 - 1Jun
- 1890 - First Monday in June -- most of this census was destroyed by a fire in 1921
- 1900 - 1Jun
- 1910 - 15 Apr
- 1920 - 1Jan
- 1930 - 1 Apr
- Enumeration Districts -- geographical census areas -- refer https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/Finding_a_Person_in_the_1930_Census_%28Even_Without_An_Index%29
- Mortality Schedules: people who died during the year before the census was taken -- refer https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/United_States_Census_Mortality_Schedules>
SOME ARTICLES AND INFORMATION ABOUT CENSUSES
WEBSITES WITH CENSUSES ONLINE
- https://familysearch.org -- under Historical Records -- will eventually have all US census indices and also images, where they have permission
- http://www.familysearch.org/eng/default.asp (Classic FamilySearch.org) -- US 1880, Canada 1881, UK 1881 -- under Search Records > Advanced Search -- can still download GEDCOMs from these (can't from the new FS website)
- HeritageQuest Online -- all US census images, many indices
- Differences between indices and images on Ancestry.com and HQO
- Dollarhide's "The Census Book" -- contains all the forms; can be downloaded in pdf; look in Helps
- See Don's HeritageQuest Online notes posted on http://uvtagg.org > Class Outlines > Don Snow's Listings -- how to log on, do census searches, saving and printing, etc.
- Use your Washington County library card barcode, for example, and log on via the Washington County Library website -- http://library.washco.utah.gov/
- Get the (NARA) census series, roll, and page numbers elsewhere and then see the image on HQO at home for free
- Conversion table for NARA and FHL census film numbers at https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/NARA_and_FHL_film_numbers
- Ancestry.com -- all US and UK censuses and images -- http://ancestry.com -- available at all FHCs again now
- WorldVitalRecords -- http://worldvitalrecords.com/ -- all US census images and many indices -- available at FHCs
- Footnote -- http://www.footnote.com/ -- some US census images and indices -- available at FHCs -- recently purchased by Ancestry, but seems to still be a separate website
- Genealogy.com -- http://www.genealogy.com/index_n.html -- commercial site, has all the census images, some indices
- Marie Taylor's web site -- http://www.warnes.net/Teslacorp/GenealogyLinks > 4-US Census tab -- shows what's available in FHL and FHCs and gives FHL film numbers
PRINCIPLES AND HELPS FOR SEARCHING AND USING CENSUSES
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Start with minimal info and add more to narrow down the search as needed -- reason is errors in the entry, e.g. misspellings, may cause you to miss the entry entirely if you have entered too much info
- In most indices you can do advanced searches with only first names, places, occupations, and use wildcards
- Check the neighbors for relatives since extended family members frequently lived nearby
- Follow the family through all appropriate censuses -- can sometimes find these easily with head of househhold indices, e. g. HQO
- Census forms and worksheets are available
- State and county boundaries change over time -- can make up a series of county boundary change maps by using maps from Dollarhide's "Map Guide to the U.S. Federal Census 1790-1920" online at Google Books
- Can do printscreens to save the images by using a program such as FastStone Capture (v 5.3 was last freeware version of FastStone Capture -- http://www.aplusfreeware.com/categories/mmedia/FastStoneCapture.html )
- Tools available
STATE CENSUSES
- Many states took their own censuses half way between the federal censuses, e.g. in 1885 and 1895
- Search on the FamilySearch's Learn (Wiki) for "Arizona state census", for example
- Use the website mentioned above of all online censuses -- http://www.census-online.com/
- Check USGenWeb -- http://www.usgenweb.org -- check state and county to see what state censuses there were and which are indexed
BRITISH CENSUSES
LDS CHURCH CENSUSES -- https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/LDS_Census
- LDS Church censuses were taken 1852-3, 1914, and every 5 years
from 1920 to 1960, except 1945
- Available on microfilm -- see FHL Catalog for film numbers you need
ASSIGNMENT
- Read over the "United States Federal Census" document on FamilySearch > Learn (link given above or just type in "United States Federal Census" (without the quotes) and it's the first item).
- Find your parents in some U.S. Census on FamilySearch > Historical Records and see what it says about them.
- Pick an ancestral family and find it in each appropriate census over time to see changes.
- See if you can find a state census online that has one of your families.
Return to the Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group Home Page or Don Snow's Class Listings Page .