U. S. Census Items, 1840-1950

About the U.S. Census

I was a census taker in 1960 while studying sociology at the Rogers Park campus of Loyola University in Chicago, Illinois. In April that year, at the suggestion of a sociology professor, I went to the local census headquarters at the Edgewater Beach Hotel and picked up a census kit containing census forms, instructions, and the addresses assigned to me in Rogers Park. I took the census where I was told, signed the forms, and submitted them to headquarters back at the Edgewater Beach Hotel.

I had no idea that some day I might become an amateur genealogist and look at images of the original census sheets as my single most important source of infomation.

In 2032, when I am 92 years old, the pages for Rogers Park with my name on them will be made public.

U.S. Constitution

Article I, Section 2 of the the U. S. Constituion requires that a census be taken every 10 years in order to apportion the members of the House of Representatives. According to Public Law 95-416, enacted in 1978, census information is made public 72 years after the census year.

On April 2, 2012, the 1940 census was made public, and I found myself at age 5/12 on Line 16 of a page for Kalamazoo, Michigan.

On April 1, 2022, the 1950 census was made public, and I found myself at age 10 on Line 28 of a page for Wilmette, Illinois.

1890 Census Destroyed by Fire

Most of the original 1890 census was destroyed in 1921 by a fire in the Commerce Department.

Searching the Census

There are two ways to search for ancestors in the U.S. Census:

Ancestry.com, which is available at some libraries as Ancestry Library Edition or can be viewed at home by paying a fee.
Family Search, which can be viewed at home without a fee. Provided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

These services have indexed the names in the census and allow you to search for a name in a state for a census year. They also allow advanced searches with more criteria. Sometimes, the name is not available because the original form is difficult to read or it has been misread by the indexer. This problem often can be circumvented with extra effort by searching (1) the first name and adding criteria to narrow the search, (2) the name of a neighbor, or (3) page by page in a certain geographic area.

U.S. Census Items, 1790-1950

The table below shows the key items available in the U. S. census from 1790 to 1950. For more information on the content of each census.

Item	1790	1800/10	1820	1830	1840	1850	1860	1870	1880	1900	1910	1920	1930	1940	1950
Address	City	City	City	City	City	City	City	City	City and street	City and street	City and street	City and street	City and street	City and street	City and street
Name	Head only	Head only	Head only	Head only	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Relationship	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Age	Male bracket	Bracket	Bracket	Bracket	Bracket	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Month and year born	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Sex	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Marital status	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Years married and number of children	Years married and number of children	Yes	Age first married	Yes	Yes
Birthplace	No	No	No	No	No	Self	Self	Self	Self, parents	Self, parents	Self, parents	Self, parents	Self, parents	Self	Self
Occupation	No	No	Yes	No	Industry	Males	Males	Males	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Income	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No
Literacy	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
Education	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No
Immigration	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Year	Year	Year	Year	No	No

History of the Census

For the history of the Census and instructions to census takers, see History of the Census and Its Samples.

Nonpopulation Census

Agriculture, mortality, and social statistics schedules are available for the census years of 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880. Manufacturing schedules are available for 1820, 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880. Agricultural schedules of 1850, 1860, and 1870 provide the following information for each farm: name of owner or manager, number of improved and unimproved acres, and the cash value of the farm, farming machinery, livestock, animals slaughtered during the past year, and "homemade manufactures." The schedules also indicate the number of horses, mules, "milch cows," working oxen, other cattle, sheep, and swine owned by the farmer. The amount of oats, rice, tobacco, cotton, wool, peas and beans, Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, barley, buckwheat, orchard products, wine, butter, cheese, hay, clover seed, other grass seeds, hops, hemp, flax, flaxseed, silk cocoons, maple sugar, cane sugar, molasses, and beeswax and honey produced during the preceding year is also noted. The 1880 schedules provide additional details, such as the amount of acreage used for each kind of crop, the number of poultry, and the number of eggs produced. See Nonpopulation Census.