U.S. Census 1790-1950 for Genealogy Research: Grow Your Family Tree Using Census Records

[@GenealogyTV]

Evidence Explained by Elizabeth Shown Mills - Book on Amazon - affiliate link amzn.to/47k50X5

[@cesiliebotello2265]

I was lucky enough to find out that my Dad was really a 'paper boy' in the 1950's because he was one of those over 14 individuals that got to answer the supplemental questions on the 1950 census. The census is an amazing resource. When the 1930 census came out in 2002 I had taken my Mom to help me do some of her family research. She was looking at a microfilm of the census and when she found herself and her parents she yelled and squealed. "I found it. That's me." Everyone doing research clapped. it was so cute.

[@GenealogyTV]

Love it.

[@briansaul4707]

Many archive & family centers experiences in the "A-ha! room". Applause often heard.

[@chieffamilygenealogyoffice621]

I think of the census’ as the bones of my family history and or guideposts directing me to areas that I haven’t discovered-

[@NancyFiles-fj6kp]

I obtained a pension application from 1890-1891. The affiants had their age and current residence. For some of them I added this record to a public tree to help out other researchers who may happen to be looking for the 1890 residence of the particular person because most of the 1890 census was lost.

[@DNAConsultingDetectives]

Great content, as always! Clearly, I need to go back over every census on my tree. 🤭 I was blessed to have most of my family living in Iowa in 1925 for the best census ever.

[@wyattandwill12]

Very cool. One thing you can use in addition to that pre-1850 method (not as a replacement) is a Census Comparison Form. There’s a series on the Ancestry Academy site (or whatever they may call it now). The method can get confusing if you’re working with a common name but that can be worked around. It’s good for narrowing down a range of someone’s birth year and seeing if it looks like the right household.

[@GenealogyTV]

Good to know.

[@DaleBrotherton]

Something I discovered about the 1910 U.S. census... Column 12 shows how many times a person had been married if they were listed as being married. If a person had been married a total of three times, then it would be listed in Column 12 as M3.

[@GenealogyTV]

Yes!

[@carbonbomb4774]

Quite common, a lot of wives became widows after ww2 and the Civil War. Someone in my family had 3 husbands, and she inherited two family generations of assets before passing off her third husband's family assets. Civil War ended up killing her husband, and she inherited his parents' house and farm. And then she remarried. It makes sense.

[@ginagaladriel]

Love the idea of downloading the Census templates!

[@brucesteele3052]

Considering my 1950 birth year, you pass on valuable information.

[@GenealogyTV]

Well there you go. Perhaps you are listed in the 1950 census.

[@MsSherrydarling]

Great video Connie!! I will have to watch it a few times to make notes and get all the deets😉. I am Canadian but l have many members of my tree that moved to the U.S. This will be a big help for tracking them, thanks so much! 👍🇨🇦😊

[@GenealogyTV]

My pleasure. Thanks for the compliments.

[@williamhughes5946]

Great video! Thanks for the useful tips. You mentioned that Cabell and Wayne Counties (WV) are 35 miles apart. I live in that area and unless borders changed since 1863, the two counties currently border each other.

[@GenealogyTV]

Thanks. I think it was Google maps center point of each county I was looking at. I need to get up the some day to research in person.

[@MusicInMotion_67]

This is brilliant!

[@5homegirl]

I am watching this episode (and at the 39-53 time stamp) you are talking about the census records and that you search 10 pages before and after the person you are researching. The census in Alabama for 1850 is 98 pages long. Ancestry took me to the future relatives of my 2x great grandmother (one of my brick walls), but her family was not listed anywhere from page 70-98. I left my research, but the next day in the early morning hours I thought I had to go back to the 1850 censes and try again. I started at pg 1 and on pg 1, line 1-6 I find her and her family! Just thought you would like the story. You know the saying "turn over every stone", it paid off in this instance.

[@GenealogyTV]

Yay! That is awesome. Love it. Thanks for supporting the channel!

[@bluekimchiandrea4476]

I learned my dad's family was living in Maine and my grand father was going to school to be a minister and my grandmother was a store manager and acted in some plays 😊

[@janicehackbarth394]

I will be using your search strategy of reverse engineering the 1840 and prior census records. I have ancestors in the New England area and have basically avoided trying to match up the families because of the age buckets. One thing I've been using from the 1910 census is knowing the number of children the wife had and how many were living at the time the census was taken. It's helped me find some of the missing children. The 1890 census is one that holds a lot of information for my families, but I've learned to work around that by looking at church records and records at the county courthouse. This has been a most informative video. Thank you for sharing your wealth of information with us!

[@GenealogyTV]

Very nice. Thank you.

[@DNAConsultingDetectives]

Just your mention of the 1890 census and I quickly found myself stress breathing! 😆 Oh, the trauma.

[@afnDavid]

There were also mid-decennial censuses taken in various states. Also consider that Ma and Pa might not know how old their children were when the enumerator come too visit. Or even how old they themselves were/.

[@joelwolski]

One thing I've learned is to always remember that for the early census records, the enumerators didn't always follow the rules. I found records from one area where the age columns where listed in descending order of age. Always doublecheck those column headers. Another time I found early 1800's records (don't remember exactly where or what because no one in my family turned up there, so I didn't record it) for a very rural area where everyone was listed by name with a tic in the appropriate age column. What a boon!

[@janetjohnston8243]

Another tip when looking back. When Virginia split, you should find old maps of newly formed state and take note of counties. They also expanded through the years. This happened looking for marriage records in Christian Cty and discovered county lines were changed after the marriage. Immediately found in Trigg Cty. Definitely, an AHA moment.

[@sharontabor7718]

Are you are talking about Kentucky? Kentucky border counties on the TN line could have families that lived in 3 states and 7 counties between 1790-1820 due to Walker's line, a 15-mile discrepancy between the 1792-1796 surveys for KY and TN statehood. The current boundary was established in 1820. A family living in Simpson County KY that settled there before 1792 could have lived in VA, KY, TN, KY in Lincoln, Logan, Warren, Allen, Simpson Co KY, Sumner, Smith Co, TN - and never moved. You have to check every county depending on the year.

[@bluekimchiandrea4476]

I didn't know to do the transcriptions when I started looking for my family two years ago. Now I can't find certain records and I wish I had known to transcribe and site sources😢

[@kellypease2240]

A little humorous family story about census records - My great-uncle had a "sly sense" of humor. In the 1940 census under the suppplementary questions, under native tongue, he answered Greek. The family were living in Nebraska and all of his parents, grandparents and beyond into the 1600's were in the USA. I think he must have gotten the answer from the saying "It's all Greek to me".

[@GenealogyTV]

Funny

[@deborahtanner354]

Great information!

[@GenealogyTV]

Glad it was helpful!

[@cliffordtimpson9842]

You have given a ton of information😊, thank you. I follow your tips and tricks often. Now I have a question, "can you capture raw from Ancestry dNA matches and transfer into Excel?"

[@GenealogyTV]

You can do this manually. See this episode kzbin.info/www/bejne/o53dcqKfrLiKf6c

[@fredchiles5090]

Like This Video Informative Tool 💯👍

[@troyphillips6820]

The Link for the 1930 Census in the handout points to the 1940 Census

[@GenealogyTV]

Good catch... here is the updated version. docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16LiwOMdpyV5lx-WJObnMAaW5GApdNQgR/edit#gid=1664242374

[@kathyl2839]

I enjoyed the video and picked up a few new tips. At one point you make the comment that only the Eastern states were in the 1790-1830 census, that among others, KY, VA and TN were not included in those years. However I have US Census records for my ancestors in KY for 1830, 1820 and 1810. They do not exist for 1790 and 1800, just tax lists in KY.

[@GenealogyTV]

Good point. I was quoting the National Archives information.

[@cmmroots]

Fun find in the 1950 Census: I was looking at the record for my great Uncle. I personally know his five sons. In the record, I saw the first four, but where was Dale? I looked again (a little more carefully) and there he was, but his line was crossed out. IMPORTANT lesson on watching the exact dates. Turns out, the enumerator visited this family on April 17. Apparently, he asked for all the names, they were supplied, and he recorded them. Then he moved on to the ages, Well Dale was only a few days old so he realized that Dale was NOT in the household on April 1 and he crossed out his line. So fun, as I have the information (even though he did not count on the census) and I have a "fun find" story.

[@GenealogyTV]

Great story.

[@willmitchell2553]

What’s the thought on this? In the 1950 census it says im living with my folks in Philly(never lived with them) and in Brooklyn Ny same census im in house with my Aunt and Uncle same year where i lived till marriage . I know this but what of someone else researching after im gone( im 80+)

[@GenealogyTV]

Make your truly the best it can be and hopefully they’ll find it.

[@alvree01]

In reviewing 1920 census records, there was some glaring errors on a couple of the household members. I happen to know what the correct information should be. Is there a way to notate this in some way?

[@GenealogyTV]

Only if there is a transcription error. You can click on the name and change it.

[@kathyastrom1315]

That lack of providing all of the household names before 1850 is so annoying! I was trying to find out when four 1st cousins, 7x removed, joined the Shakers. They were all listed in the 1850 census for their communal residence at the Shaker Village in Alfred, ME, but I had to do a lot of triple-checking to figure out they had joined sometime between 1803 (when the eldest was working for their father) and 1810. It was made more difficult because a few of their unmarried sisters were still living with their parents in 1810, but not all of them.

[@saraschneider6781]

6:52 The baby boom started in 1946.

[@snuggs3150]

When reviewing some of my families censuses, I see only naturalization is noted by the husband, the wife's info is blank for all of the censuses. Did women who immigrated to live with their spouse have to be naturalized, or did they fall under their spouses naturalization?

[@GenealogyTV]

In most cases, if a woman was married to a citizen, she gained automatic citizenship and you won't find naturalization records.

[@snuggs3150]

@@GenealogyTV If they both were Irish though, they both would have to naturalize? I am trying to find maiden name of my relative, but I think the naturalization records back in the 1870's didn't ask for that information. :( Btw, thank you for such wonderful videos. They truly are wonderful

[@davemason2604]

I am from the UK and here we can only see census records from 100 years and earlier . I mean the latest census records we can view are from 1921. I think this is due to UK Privacy Laws. Out of curiosity why is it different in the US?

[@janicehackbarth394]

The U.S. has a 70-year rule. I think they figure by the age of 70 most people would be deceased, and the information provided would not be for a living person.

[@davemason2604]

@janicehackbarth394 Thank you for the reply. I guess each country has different laws on their census records

[@GenealogyTV]

Yes... you are correct. The UK has 100 year privacy laws while the US has a 72 year privacy law.

[@LanceHall]

What? No clip from the Stooges short where they were 1940 census takers?

[@deborahtanner354]

I would love to see that!

[@GenealogyTV]

Funny

[@JoshuaRieth]

I'm still trying to find my great grandfather in the New York 1950 census. He was a truck driver, separated with his wife and there was a child born in Kentucky in 1951...

[@volvo850rex]

blank forms, great idea! So tired of scrolling up to read the headers

[@GenealogyTV]

Glad it was helpful!

[@bluekimchiandrea4476]

I wish the 1850's census asked where they were 5 years prior. I can't find one set of my family for ten whole years

[@GenealogyTV]

Agreed.

[@Rebecca-le9hn]

I was born in 1949 so I was glad to see myself and my parents on the 1950 census. My father was 28 years old, my mother 27 years and I was shown to be 62 years old as the daughter of the head of household. I was 6 months old. How can this be corrected? I looked up a family in the 1860 census record because the names of the entire family was recorded in a WPA Slave Narrative Project. I found the family and the occupation of the head of household was listed as being a PLUMBER, when it should have been PLANTER.

[@GenealogyTV]

On the 1950 census, it is likely the enumerator wrote 6/12 which meant six months old. The automation software read it as 62. If you go into the transcript area (person icon at the bottom of the image), you can double click on the age in the transcription and create a correction. Use transcription error as the reason from the drop down menu.

[@Rebecca-le9hn]

@@GenealogyTV thank you very much.

[@olajones5601]

My Papa was born. January 6,1870 and he passed June 18, 1973 and I witness him at 103 years old when he passed . And I was 9 year old. I'm the youngest out in my family of 6 sibling s. My father was 10 year older than my mother . She was born in 1930 of November 24. Now I feel that I know both of my biological parents family history. But when genology came out. I get very up set stranger know more about my family history better than me. No Thank You

[@staceybenson2259]

If New Jersey wasn't supposed to have a census in 1830, why is there a Census for my 3rd great grandfather William Benson in Jersey City, Bergen, New Jersey? He was living next door to his mother-in-law Elizabeth Vincent.

[@1SassyCrafter]

I believe you’re talking about the video segment where Connie talks about the 1790-1840 censuses. She’s stating via the Archives.gov website that New Jersey etc was affected by the 1812 war. I hope I understood your comment correctly.

[@JeffreyAdamGamble]

I am Joshua Shipp, I am adopted born with Down Syndrome. I am stating out researching on my biological family. I really want to lean and it is really hard for me, and I do not understand about my family history. I do not remember my family that much. I am leaning little bit form your show on KZbin. I might Need help to research, I do not know what I am doing. And i have found I am related to Thomas Jefferson the 3rd president 2nd cousin 7x removed

[@GenealogyTV]

Start with what you know. Write that down. Then look for records. If you know your parents names then write them down in your notes. Don’t write them here.

[@JeffreyAdamGamble]

@@GenealogyTV I Do know some of my family I haven't done research notes and that's the hard part for me. should i tell my biological parents before i do the research notes

[@LeviandTominHD]

Reinstate the naturalization act of 1790

[@LeviandTominHD]

Based like

[@MonicaMovieStar]

The deets? Ugh! You are not 20-years-old. Get your ego in check, for Pete's sake!!

[@1SassyCrafter]

Ironically, you’re criticizing someone for using a modern term by using a term first recorded in 1903…to be less offensive than the original term…ironically.

[@GenealogyTV]

@MonicaMovieStar - Oh come on now. Seriously? It's a free video that took me about 40 hours to produce. I'm just trying to have some fun here.