How to Make Sense of the U.S. Census

The United States Census and State Census are a valuable tool for the genealogist, whether they are a professional or amateur genealogist. Where many family records are difficult to obtain, the U.S. Census is readily available and often free through your local library, your local LDS branch or over the Internet. Other than a personal will or family Bible, there is no other document where you will find parents and their children listed together. This is true for all censuses starting with 1850. Some earlier censuses only listed the head of household by name. The balance of the family was listed only by the number of males and females within various age groups.

Names, age, place of birth and occupation are the key contributions of the census as is the family's place of residence at the time of the census. The information, however, is not always accurate. In particular, the spelling of the names. Misspellings of the family surname are not uncommon with some names being more prone to misspelling than others. This is not a major obstacle when manually running down the name column, but for electronic searches, depending on the sophistication of the search tool or the severity of the misspelling, you may not find the family you are looking for.

The census takers were the source of the erroneous spellings. They spelled the name as is sounded. Smyth would be Smith, Rexrode would be Rexroad and Rolston would be Ralston. Keep in mind that many of those being enumerated in the censuses could neither read nor write and may not have even known how their surname was written. This is particularly true in the earlier censuses.

Given names are another issue. Although given names were not immune to corruption by the census takers, it was not unusual for people to change their given names between childhood and adulthood. Add in the use of middle names and nicknames only increases the uncertainty. Infant mortality was much higher in the 1800s, and unlike today, infants often were not given names until they were six months or a year old. Only be reviewing sequential censuses, comparing the ages and names of siblings, can a single individual be verified even when the name is changed.

Although many errors are attributed to the census takers, other errors come from the individual who provided the information to the census taker. A spouse's place of birth, as well as a spouse's parents' places of birth can often be wrong. The information provided may change from one census to another making you wonder if you are looking at the same family or not. Knowing where the family or parents had lived or were born is beneficial, as the listed place of birth for the parents, or even the spouse, may be where they lived at one time and not where they were born.

The 1900 census was the first census to record the month and year of birth. It is not unusual to find the year of birth does not agree with the year listed later on the individual's tombstone or death certificate. Generally this will only be a year different. Censuses and death certificates are both relying on information provided by some informant, and although correct a majority of the time, neither are totally reliable.

The other addition to the 1900 and 1910 censuses was the number of births and children still living. Although census records captured the names or existence of most of the children, there were often children who were born and died between censuses. The addition of the children born and living to the 1900 and 1910 censuses is helpful, but not always accurate as parents did not always count the births of stillborn children or those that died in infancy. Where there were multiple wives, the number of children is normally only for the current wife, but once in a while the number of children for both wives are listed. Perhaps it is an indication that the husband provided the information and not his wife.

The census is a great source of information for those researching a family genealogy, but it is not without errors. Most of the errors can be identified and noted after viewing consecutive censuses for the same family. Where possible, always refer to filmed or copied census. A transcribed census only adds another potential transcription error into an already flawed document.