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US Census Records

The first American Census was held in 1790, nearly 200 years after the first settlers had arrived.

By that time the population was almost 4,000,000, concentrated in 16 states in the north-east: Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucy, Maine, Maryland, Massachussetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Virginia.

3.2 million of the enumerated population were white, 698,000 were black slaves and almost 60,000 free black. American Indians and Eskimos were not included in the census.

In 1812, after the USA declared war on Great Britain, the census records of 5 of the states - Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey and Virginia - were destroyed. Virginia's records were subsequently re-constructed from tax records, but the other 4 have been lost forever.

Most immigrants settled on the east coast - the 20 largest communities of the time were established around the sea ports where the immigrants, mostly from Europe, arrived into the USA.

The 5 largest settlements at the time were New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Charleston and Baltimore.

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The format of the US Census

Only 6 questions were asked in the census of 1790:

*This question was asked so the government knew how many men were available to draft into war.

By the time of the 1840 Census, over 70 questions were asked of each household.

How complete is the US census?

The census was held, as in England and Wales, every 10 years, and each year grew, changed and evolved.

In the earlier years there have been some losses of records - the 1820 census suffered losses of some Arkansas, Missouri, New Jersey, Alabama and Tennessee records. In 1830, some of the counties of Massachussetts, Maryland and Mississippi were destroyed, and for the 1890 Census, almost the entire census was destroyed by a fire, in 1921.

For all other years, the losses have been minimal.

Ancestry.com have the entire available US Census in its database, and you can see original images, rather than transcriptions.

How do I use the Census records?


It's almost pointless to wander aimlessly through census records, although few of us can resist an occasional ad-hoc internet search.

The most productive way of finding your ancestors is, as with any genealogical research, to start with the most recent ancestors you know, and work backwards in time.

You will first have established that your family did in fact emigrate to America.

Through use of Passenger lists you may have discovered the names and ages of entire families, and perhaps managed to find where they were headed. This, combined with some intelligent detective work will be your starting point through the census.