New York, U.S., Erie County Census 1855, 1865, 1875

The New York, Erie County Census records for the years 1855, 1865, and 1875 are contained in this database. The state of New York began taking censuses in 1825 and continued every 10 years until 1875. Information available in these particular records includes surnames, head of household and all other household members, age, gender, marital status, and on occasion additional information such as occupation, number of children, citizenship status, and military service.

Although federal censuses, taken every ten years, recorded similar data, states censuses can supplement this information allowing the researcher to trace an individual every five years. Often state censuses also collected information specific to the community such as the agricultural and domestic industry data available in form II of the census records in this collection.

Some of the above information was taken from:

• Szucs, Loretto Dennis, "Research in Census Records." The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy, ed. Loretto Dennis Szucs and Sandra Hargreaves Luebking (Salt Lake City: Ancestry, 1997).

Information in this database:

• Head of household
• Names of all members in household
• Gender
• Age
• Race or color
• Relation to head of household
• Birthplace
• Marital status
• Enumeration place
• Year of enumeration (1855, 1865, or 1875)

Information that may be in this database:

• Occupation
• Citizenship status
• Whether deaf, dumb, or idiot
• Military status

In 1911 a fire in the state library destroyed many state copies of the New York censuses from 1855 to 1905. Surviving copies of these records can be found in county offices or other libraries. To obtain copies of the original records found in this collection write to:

Hamburg Historical Society
Hamburg Town Hall
S 3100 South Park Ave
Hamburg, NY 14075

Telephone: (716) 646-5115

Website: Hamburg Historical Society