Genealogy Lesson #6: The next series of lessons are focused on the U.S. Federal Census.
A census is a systematic recording of information about a specific population. It is often a regularly occurring official government count of the population of a country but they also exist for states, provinces, cities, and religious bodies.
Primarily the U.S. Federal Census is created to count the population in order to calculate each state’s representatives in Congress. However, it has become a really important genealogical resource because it presents families grouped together and provides basic demographic information which can help in the tracking down of other genealogical resources such as immigration records, vital records, and military records.
The U.S. Federal Census is taken every ten years on the years ending in “0”. Right now, in 2020, Census surveys are being mailed to homes across the country. Your responses to the 2020 will be collected online for the very first time in history. When the U.S. Federal Census began in 1790, though, the data was collected by a census taker who walked door-to-door asking a series of questions of each household.
For the first 50 years of the U.S. Federal Census the questions asked by census takers consisted of the name of the head of the household and how many individuals resided on the property catagorized by sex and age. That is pretty much it. As time has gone on though the number of questions and the amount of data collected has increased.
Before searching for specific census records, I’d like you to look at the wide variety of information the census will contain about your family throughout history. Check out: Measuring America: The decennial censuses from 1790 to 2000 by Jason Gauthier, written in 2002. Keep in mind this does not include information about the 2010 or 2020 census; still it is a wonderful resource. Check out pages 119-124. http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/pol02-ma.pdf
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