Over the last six months, this column has discussed the "Anatomy" of the federal census for the years from 1870-1930, not including the mostly-destroyed 1890 census. In this series of articles, each column of the census questionnaire was examined, and clues that will aid your research were discussed. If you have missed any of these articles, you can read them again using the links below:
Anatomy of the 1930 federal census
Anatomy of the 1920 federal census
Anatomy of the 1910 federal census
Anatomy of the 1900 federal census
Anatomy of the 1880 federal census
Anatomy of the 1870 federal census
In a discussion concerning the federal census as evidence for genealogical research, however, one must also consider the question: are census records reliable sources?
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This article is part of a continuing series looking at each federal census individually. Please read the others in the archives of this column.
The 1870 U. S. Census was the Ninth Decennial Census. This census is probably the single most important census for genealogists conducting research on African-American families
The Census of Agriculture historically was conducted by the Census Bureau in conjunction with the population census every ten years. Since 1992, however, the Agriculture Census has been performed by the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service every five years in years ending in "2" or "7" This is website has information going back to 1840.
The 1881 Census offers a rich source of information about Canada and Canadians. Through this research tool, you can access digitized images of original census returns which list the name, age, country or province of birth, nationality, religion, and occupation of Canada's residents at the time of the 1881 Census.
This guide is designed to help you find out what state census records are available. We have limited the scope of this listing to include only those major sources that were generally designed by the state (or pre-state) government as a census of inhabitants and are readily accessible.
Many sources exist that are not technically census records, but may assist you in locating a family. Tax lists, rent roles, voter lists, poll lists, etc. are among these. A few of them have been included.
When the 1860 federal census was collected and enumerated, slavery was still legal within most of the states south of the Mason-Dixon line. The 1860 federal census enumerated only free people of color in its population schedule; slaves were enumerated namelessly on a separate schedule, identified only by slave owner, age, gender, and color.
This site uses a database containing genealogical information on emigrants from the Dutch province of Drenthe, which was compiled by researcher Arend Everts from Hoogeveen. He searched the 1840-1930 census records of all towns in this province and several towns in the provinces of Groningen and Overijssel for 'departed persons'. The data was then checked against information from the archives of Pella, Iowa, Holland, Michigan and Grand Rapids, Michigan.
In addition to the emigrant indexes (passenger lists 1820-1880 and American census records 1850-1870) published by Robert Swieringa, 'Emigrants from Drenthe' aims to be a handy resource for genealogical research.
This column previously addressed the importance of the 1870 U. S. census in African-American research. As noted in that article, this was the first federal census after the end of the Civil War, and therefore the first record group to record personal information about former slaves nationwide. It was not, however, the earliest record group to do so in many localities. Many similar record groups were created that provide information about former slaves between 1865 and 1870.
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