Effective Tips for Finding Census Records
As genealogists, we understand the importance of census records. Sometimes, we like to think that the census records were created for genealogy. When in reality, the government created census records for government purposes. Then genealogists use them later for their purposes.
Why were census records created
Governments all across the world use census records to inventory their people. It’s a count and a description of it’s people for that given day. The government then uses that number for many things including making sure people are properly represented for each state, for tax purposes, and for dividing it’s funds for each government program.
What Do the Different Censuses Show
The Federal government started creating federal censuses in 1790. The census records from 1790 to 1840 asked for very little information. Only the head of the household was named while the rest of the family and their slaves were listed as check marks. It wasn’t until the 1850 federal census that the government decided to include the family’s full names. Then from 1850 to today, people’s full names were included.
FamilySearchWiki has a great article about what the government added or dropped in each census record. You will find that information here. Basically, the government wanted to know specific things in order to divide the federal resources for those items. The censuses helped form government departments based on the people’s answers.
How to Find Census Records on Ancestry.com
You may already know how to find census records on Ancestry. They do an amazing job at making it easier for you to do a general search in the censuses and voter lists tab. However, if you want to search census by census then let’s see a different way to search.
First, you open the Census and Voter Lists in the Search tab. Then you click on the button called U.S. Federal Census Collection (image below). Next, you scroll down to the bottom of the page and select the Census Year that you want. This way you can search each census year by year instead of doing a person search.
How about FamilySearch.org
The Family Search website is easy to use if you want to search by census year instead of by person. After you log in go to the Search tab. Then scroll to the bottom until you see Find the Collection. Next type in United States Census and it will pull up each census year. You just have to click on the census year that you want and that’s it!
I highly recommend you try to find your ancestors in each census year. It’s a lot of fun to trace your ancestor through every ten years and see how they changed or didn’t change. Some of my ancestors stayed in the same place for generations. So it was interesting to find that out. In addition, you see new things about the family as new census questions were asked of them.
Good luck and happy hunting!
Tiffany
P.S. If you want to learn more then click on the links below
- A Brief Look at Danish Census Records
- Swedish Household Examination Records (Swedish Census)
- Norwegian Censuses
