“Eventually, all
genealogists come to their census.” - Unknown
One of the most obvious, and also most valuable
genealogy tools is the United States Census.
Taken every ten years, the census allows you to
have a peek inside the homes of your ancestors. Through census records, you are
able to see the ages of those living in the home, the names of those in the
home, the street that they lived on, their birthplaces, occupations, and more.
Currently, census records from 1790 to 1940 are available online. The 1950
census will be made public in 2022.
Census records can uncover small, but valuable details
that help you better understand the lives of your relatives. Or, in some cases,
the census can uncover new family mysteries. While viewing census records in my
own research, I have come across a few surprising details.
A little mystery that I uncovered was related
to my 2nd great-grandmother, Anna Fedczak. In the 1940 census, there
was a question which asked women, “Number of
children ever born?” She responded ‘4’. However,
we only know of three children, Harry, John, and Michael. I do not know if the
fourth child was a miscarriage or stillbirth, a child that she had before she
immigrated to America from Ukraine, or if it was just a simple error on the
part of the census-taker.
This small example shows that the lives of our
ancestors, like ours, are complicated and not always easy to piece together.
However, having these records allows us to trace their steps.
Below, I have listed several tips for using the
census records for your genealogy research.
1.
Decide where to
search.
There are several
ways to get ahold of census records. Census records are available predominately
at FamilySearch.org, Ancestry.com, and MyHeritage.com.
I would recommend
using either FamilySearch.org or www.Ancestry.com to search for census records,
as MyHeritage is not very user-friendly and you will have to pay an expensive
annual subscription. FamilySearch.org is free to use and easy to search, by simply
inputting the name of your ancestor and specifying that you are searching for
census records.
To view census
records on Ancestry, you will have to pay for a subscription. As previously
mentioned in a post, there are many monthly and annual subscriptions to choose
from, so Ancestry can work with many different budgets. Or, if you would like
to use Ancestry but are not interested in a subscription, you may check to see
if your local library system has a branch with a subscription to Ancestry.
I would highly recommend
either Ancestry or FamilySearch for checking out the census records.
2.
Details, detail,
details!!!
When you are
searching census records, it is important to pay close attention to everything.
Look at the ages, dates, names, places, and make sure that you have the right
people. It is easy to find families with similar names, and become mixed up.
Before saving anything to your family tree, be sure to double-check all the
details.
3.
Spelling Errors
Census-takers
were notorious for misspelling names! If you are having trouble finding your
ancestor, search their names with various spellings. For example, the correct
spelling of my ancestors’ last name is Fedczak. However, in the 1920
census it was spelled Fedayzek, and in 1930 it was spelled Frczek. Be open to
searching for additional spellings, but always make sure the other information
in the census in correct (ages, places, etc.), so you know that you have the
right people.
4.
Read Everything!
Although it could
take a bit of time, reading the entire census entry can be beneficial to your
research. By taking note of families living in houses next to and around your
ancestors, you are able to understand more about the area in which they lived.
Also, historically, many families lived very close to each other. So, you may
discover something about other relatives as well.
Hopefully these
tips are helpful as you begin to comb through census records.
There is also a
link below to the history page of the Census.gov website, which has some great
information on the historical side of the census records.
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