In April 2022, the 1950 census data will be released by NARA. Get ready for the release of the 1950 census with CensusTools’ 1950 spreadsheet template! Read More »
Why You Should Transcribe Census Records
With the introduction of Ancestry’s online access to records that can be automatically appended to trees online or in Family Tree Maker, it is easy to let expediency win out over best practices. Census research online can be as simple as clicking to add facts to a tree, but we cheat ourselves out of important evidence when we skip transcription. Read More »
Census Research: Enumerator Instructions
The more you know, the more effectively you can research and the more accurate your conclusions will be. With regard to using censuses for genealogy, that means understanding the instructions given to census enumerators. The instructions to enumerators for each individual census year are crucial to understanding the information recorded (or not recorded) for your ancestor. Read More »
Find a Census Listing by Street Address
Most genealogists are very familiar with searching Ancestry or FamilySearch for individuals in the U.S. federal census population schedule, but not as many know that they can look for people in the census by address. For 1880-1940, there is a tool that can be used to enter an address – either a street name or an exact house number – and find the census images for that address. Read More »
State Census Records
You have diligently recorded (in a CensusTools spreadsheet of course!) all of the available information from the U.S. federal censuses for your ancestors, but you still have some gaps. Some of the federal records you were counting on were unreadable, and just when everyone in a family was finally listed by name in 1850, there’s that 2g-grandfather who somehow didn’t get enumerated. You’d love to be able to pinpoint when your paternal g-grandfather and his family moved from New York to Iowa, but the 10 year gaps between federal census returns doesn’t narrow it down much for you. What’s a researcher to do? Read More »
The 1890 Census – Filling in the Gap
1890 Census Record Loss: Most of us have experienced the frustration of researching our grandparents and great grandparents through the years, only to find a huge gap in available data due to the loss of the 1890 census. Four of my great grandparents immigrated to America in the 1880’s and the 1890 census would have provided their first census records as Americans. Read More »