What Data Is Included In The Census?
The British instituted the first censuses in America during the colonial period to better tax colonists. As a result, the colonies took almost forty censuses of their populations between 1600 and 1789. In 1790, the federal government administered the first official U.S. census to gauge the country's military power in the event of war. Since then, the government has administered a new census every ten years.
A good way to work with census is to take the most recent data and work backward, tracing your family line as far back as possible. Record all information available about your ancestors, because it may prove useful later on. Always learn about families living in the same town or county and sharing the same last name as your ancestors and you may find some relatives you never knew you had. Below are the censuses themselves, including their contents.
1790: Name of family head; free white males 16 and older; free white males under 16; free white females; slaves; and other persons, which may include workers, friends, or boarders who were not actually family members. When the British attacked Washington, DC during the War of 1812, the schedules for Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, Tennessee, Virginia, and parts of Maryland and North Carolina were burned, although many of these lost records have been restored with the help of state tax lists.
1800: Name of household head; free white males and females under the age of 10, and between the ages of 10 and 16, 16 and 26, 26 and 44, and over 44 years old.; race; and slaves. The schedules for Georgia, Indian Territory, Kentucky, Mississippi Territory, New Jersey, Northwest Territory Ohio River, Tennessee, and Virginia are entirely missing. Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina schedules are partially missing.
1810: Listing the same information as the previous census, this census lacks the schedules for District of Columbia, Georgia, Indiana Territory, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, and Ohio. Those for Illinois Territory, Maine, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Virginia are partially missing.
1820: Name of the household head; free white males and females under 10 years old, between the ages of 10 and 16,16 and 18,18 and 26, 26 and 45, and over 45 years old; naturalized aliens; work in the agricultural, commercial, and manufacturing industries; free blacks; slaves; and people (with the exception of American Indians) not taxed. Schedules for Alabama, Arkansas Territory, Missouri, and New Jersey are entirely missing. Those for Georgia, Indiana, Maine, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee are partially missing.
1830: Name of household head; free white people under 5 years old, 10 years old, 15 years old, 20 years old, 30 years old, 40 years old and over; professions; the city, county, town, parish, district, etc., where the census was taken; military veterans who received pensions; deafness, dumbness, and blindness; unnaturalized aliens; free blacks; slaves; and schools.
1840: Name of household head; age; sex; race; slaves; deafness; dumbness; blindness; insanity; idiocy; employment; literacy; and pensioners for Revolutionary or military service.
