Secrets of the Census, Part 7: 1900

Our last post in this series was in January when we reminded our readers of what happened to the 1890 census and why we don't have digital copies of it for most of our ancestors. (Did you miss that post? You can read it here.) We now come to the start of a new century and a world that was in the throes of major changes. It was the year The Wizard of Oz was published, work began on the subway system in New York City, and those new-fangled automobiles scaring horses and humans were labeled "devil wagons." Hawaii became a U.S. territory, McKinley was president, and a new baseball club, the American League, was formed in Chicago. The census takers for the 1900 federal census began their jobs on 1 June and were given just thirty days to complete their tasks, no small feat for a U.S. population that exceeded 76,000.000! This first twentieth-century census gives us new and important information on our ancestors.

Secrets of the Census, Part 2

The first federal census to list all members of a household appeared in 1850, but that's not the only thing that makes this enumeration so important to genealogists. This census also asked for the birthplace of each individual, and even though they didn't always do it, enumerators in this census were to read the information they recorded back to the interviewee so errors could be corrected, adding to its accuracy. This census, and the one following it, also included Slave Schedules for southern states (although New Jersey and the District of Columbia also participated). As we mentioned in our previous post about the early censuses, there were non-population schedules during the mid-nineteenth century, and in 1850, these schedules were created for agriculture, industry and manufacturing, mortality, social statistics, and veterans. Read on for much more on this census.

State Censuses Can Add to Your Research

Although our August monthly meeting, Understanding and Working with the U.S. Federal Census, presented by StLGS librarian, Judy Belford, concentrated on the federal census, taken every ten years, mention was also made of state censuses, and what they can add to our research. Many states conducted population censuses in "off years," that is years in which the federal census was not held. Although taken randomly and in odd years, state censuses can often serve as substitutes for some missing federal records, and, for the most part, they asked different questions than the federal censuses, so you might learn additional information on your ancestors.