The enumeration of the population is mandated by the constitution of the United States of America. The number of representatives each state can send to Congress depends of the number of citizens within that State’s borders. This counting of the population began in 1790 and is taken every ten years. The last enumeration was taken in 2000. These are the U. S. Federal Census Records.

                Census records are the “mainstay” for family history research. The main reason these records are used is because they exist. The second reason and as important is because they are almost the only American record that list families. The majority of other records are individualized such as birth, death, etc.

                As useful as these records are to the family historian, it is very important to understand the drawbacks of them. The information collected by the enumerators was never intended for public distribution. It is because of this promise of privacy that the records are held as confidential for 72 years before they are released to the public. To date, only the census records for the years 1790-1930[1] are now classified as pubic records.

                Except for the early census records (1790-1840), there were basic questions asked, but almost every census year have different questions. While these records were not created for the family history researcher, much of the information found can offer a lot of insight into the families of the past.

                Each household was visited[2] by one of many enumerators who collected the information which was never documented with other records. The enumerator was instructed to question the head of household but they may have talked to anyone in the household or even a neighbor, if the family was not home at the time of the visit. Later, the enumerator would copy[3], by hand, the gathered information twice more. What is viewed today is one of those copies that had been sent to Washington, D.C.

                Regardless of these negative attributes of the census records, they still give the researcher the best look at a family. Finding the family in these records places the family in a locality that allows the researcher the ability to search other records. Using other records will help to verify the accuracy or inaccuracy of the information found within the census record.  

It is very important to find the family in all possible census records because the family may have more children, or married children living at home, or the elders of the family now living with their children or grandchildren. Sometimes, with immigrant families, it is possible to find newly arrived family members before they go out on their own. Even if the family shows nothing new the records still need to be thoroughly viewed.