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20 Tips for Census Research Success

Locating family members in the 1790 to 1940 census records can sometimes be challenging.  These 20 tips for research success may help avoid frustration.

1. Start with yourself. Organize what you know on an ancestral chart as well as on family group sheets for each ancestral couple.  Write in pencil!  Your knowledge will change and grow during your research.


2. Start with ancestors who were alive in 1940.  Find them on the 1940 census, and then work backwards to 1930, 1920, 1910, and so forth....  Expand your knowledge base by searching for ancestor鈥檚 siblings and other relatives.  The more information you have about a family group, the more successful you will be in locating them in previous censuses.


3. Use the clues (names, ages, birthplaces, occupations, relationships to other persons in the household) in one census to locate the same individuals in earlier censuses.


4. Names, ages, birthplaces, and other information may not be 100% correct on each census.  Accuracy depended on the knowledge or memory of the person providing the information.  Only the 1940 census identifies which household member provided the information with an 鈥�X in a circle.鈥�


5. Names may be spelled differently than you expect.  The enumerator may have written the name down according to his or her idea of how the name was spelled.  The enumerator may not have asked how the name was spelled, and the family member answering the questions may not have been able to spell their own name.  Some people are listed by initials, such as T. A. Smith, or by abbreviations, such as 鈥淭hos.鈥� for 鈥淭homas.鈥�  Think creatively!


6. Many people had similar names so it is necessary to sort them out by other personal details, such as age, birthplace, family composition, and so forth.


7. Some people were listed under erroneous names by mistake.  For example, children of remarried widows may be listed under the stepfather鈥檚 surname instead of their own surname. Recent immigrants鈥� names were sometimes garbled by enumerators who had difficulty understanding foreign accents.  Blatantly fictional names for real people were rare but were occasionally reported.


8. The birthplace of foreign-born persons may reflect the person鈥檚 understanding of their 鈥渃ountry鈥� at the time they immigrated or at the time the census was taken.  National boundaries were very fluid.  Common generic 鈥渃atch-alls鈥� include 鈥淕reat Britain鈥� (instead of England, Scotland, Ireland, or Wales) or 鈥淕ermany鈥� (instead of specific principalities).


9. Don鈥檛 ignore nearby neighbors:  they may be relatives, close friends, or neighbors from your own family鈥檚 previous place of residence.  Related and unrelated families from one geographic area sometimes migrated to a new location where people they knew already lived.


10. Most of the 1890 census was destroyed by fire, so the 20-year leap from 1900 back to 1880 may be hard to 鈥渏ump.鈥�  The more information you collect about the entire extended family in the 1900 and later censuses can help you jump back to 1880.  In addition, the 1890 鈥淪pecial Schedules of the Eleventh Census Enumerating Union Veterans and Widows of Union Veterans of the Civil War鈥� indicates where these individuals were living and information about their military service.


11. Census records provide valuable clues to locate a person in earlier censuses and other records, including an approximate date of birth (1850-1940), place of birth (1850-1940), place of each parent鈥檚 birth (1880, 1900-1930), date of marriage (1900), number of children born to each woman (1900-1910), year of immigration to the U.S. (1900-1930), military service (1910, 1930), and ownership of real estate (1850-1940).  Read Clues in Census Records, 1790-1840 and Clues in Census Records, 1850-1930 for more information. Carefully read census information so you don鈥檛 miss any valuable clues.


12. The mortality schedules of 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880鈥攍ists of persons who died during the year before the taking of the census鈥攎ay provide information about family members who would otherwise have been omitted from the census because they were deceased.


13. Check the agricultural schedules of 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880 for farmer ancestors since these give interesting statistical data on the kinds and numbers of livestock, and the types and amount of food products grown on the farm during the year preceding the taking of the census.


14. Check the manufacturing schedules of 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880 for ancestors who engaged in businesses such as tanning, milling, coopering, or cheese making, among many others. Farmers often had sideline manufacturing businesses, too, so don鈥檛 ignore these if your ancestor鈥檚 occupation was listed as 鈥渇armer鈥� on the population schedule.


15. Census takers wrote down a person鈥檚 race based on his or her visual assessment of the person, so that variations in a person鈥檚 鈥渞ace鈥� (white, black, mulatto) over time is not unusual.


16. Know the official census day!  The information collected was supposed to be accurate as of the official census day, not the date the enumerator visited the household.  These dates were August 2, 1790; August 4, 1800; August 6, 1810; August 7, 1820; June 1, 1830; June 1, 1840; June 1, 1850; June 1, 1860; June 1, 1870; June 1, 1880; June 1, 1890; June 1, 1900; April 15, 1910; January 1, 1920; April 1, 1930 (Oct. 1, 1929, in Alaska); and April 1, 1940.


17. If you have trouble finding one ancestor, don鈥檛 give up researching!  Instead, search for a different related person that likely lived in the same household or nearby or in the same community. You may find the first person you were looking for by that 鈥渂ack door鈥� approach.


18. Document your sources.  For census records, details that will help you return to the same census record鈥�or share it with another person鈥�include details such as the census year, town, county, state, enumeration district number, and page (sheet) and line numbers.


19. Don鈥檛 give up if the search engine 鈥渃an鈥檛 find鈥� the name or person you鈥檙e looking for.  Don鈥檛 rely solely on online search engines.  The data may not have been transcribed accurately. If it鈥檚 accurate, it may not be what you expect.  Be prepared to read census records page by page, line by line to look for variations in names and information that simple searches miss (you can do this online, too).


20. The 1950 census will be released on April 1, 2022.  Start getting ready by compiling lists of ancestors and their places of residence.