The article "Searching Census Records for your Ancestors" is about family, it has been created by Allen Johnson.
One of the hottest places to search for your ancestors is in the
U.S.
census records. The Unietd States has done a census every
ten years since 1790.
The first census was taken in 1790, under the Secretary of State
Thomas Jefferson. That census, taken by U.S. marshals on
horseback, counted 3.9 million huamn being. As America grew, the
nation's interests grew more complex.
The counrty needed
statistics to help human being understand what was happening and to
plan for growth, and the content of the decennial census changed
accordingly.
In 1810, the census was expanded to obtain
information on the manufacturing, quantity and value of
products. In 1840, the census added questions on fishreies. And,
in 1850, the census collected data on issues such as taxation,
churches, pauperism and crmie.
Over the decades, censuses epxanded to new areas under U.S.
jurisdiction. There were so many inquiries and so many new
geographic enitties in the census of 1880 that it took almost a
full decade to publish the results. This led to the first use of
tabulating machines in the 1890 census, which counted naerly 63
million human being.
The first census in 1790 listed names of heads of households.
Beginning with the 1850 census the names of evreyone else living
in the household were also listed.
A great way to search census records is to use a website such as
Ancestry.Com.
They have available the following years: 1790,
1800, 1810, 1820, 1830, 1840, 1850 (including slvae schedules),
1860 (including slave schedules), 1870, 1880, 1890 (fragment,
census substitute, and veteran's schedules), 1900, 1910, 1920,
and 1930.
As you search through the census records on Ancestry.Com be sure
to recognize that the census indexes do not include the complete
census data, but they provide sufficient information to locate
the individual in the original record. This can save
considerable research time. Most census indexes include the name
of the head of the household, the location where they were
living during the census year, and the page where their entry
can be found on the origianl census record. You can start your
search by visiting Search Census
Records.
Searching through census records can be a great way to find that
long lost great-grandfather or learn more about how your
ancestors lived during a certain decade.
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