
A census is an official enumeration of the population in a particular area. In addition to counting the inhabitants of an area, the census generally collects other vital information, such as names, ages, citizenship status, and ethnic background. Each census can prove to be invaluable in painting a portrait of a family at a particular place and time. For genealogists, census records have become the go-to tool when conducting research in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In theory, census enumerate every person in every household, in every district, in every town, in the state or country the census was taken in. In reality, they did miss people, for various reasons, and quite often misspelled names. To add further confusion, most census indices have been extracted by foreigners not familiar with the handwriting of the enumerator, or the local names. This requires the researcher to be diligent in searching for an individual, and don’t always take a “no results” in a search as the definitive word.
Free Census Forms
These census forms will help you keep track of the census information you find online: Free Census Forms
- Free U. S. 1790 Census Form
- Free U. S. 1800 Census Form
- Free U. S. 1810 Census Form
- Free U. S. 1820 Census Form
- Free U. S. 1830 Census Form
- Free U. S. 1840 Census Form
- Free U. S. 1850 Census Form
- Free U. S. 1860 Census Form
- Free U. S. 1870 Census Form
- Free U. S. 1880 Census Form
- Free U. S. 1890 Census Form
- Free U. S. 1900 Census Form
- Free U. S. 1910 Census Form
- Free U. S. 1920 Census Form
- Free U. S. 1930 Census Form
- Free U. S. 1940 Census Form
United States Census Records Online
We have chosen to break our census down by location. The following state links will provide you with listings of the available online census records broken down by county.
- Alabama Census Records
- Alaska Census Records
- Arizona Census Records
- Arkansas Census Records
- California Census Records
- Colorado Census Records
- Connecticut Census Records
- Delaware Census Records
- Florida Census Records
- Georgia Census Records
- Hawaii Census Records
- Idaho Census Records
- Illinois Census Records
- Indiana Census Records
- Iowa Census Records
- Kansas Census Records
- Kentucky Census Records
- Louisiana Census Records
- Maine Census Records
- Maryland Census Records
- Massachusetts Census Records
- Michigan Census Records
- Minnesota Census Records
- Mississippi Census Records
- Missouri Census Records
- Montana Census Records
- Nebraska Census Records
- Nevada Census Records
- New Hampshire Census Records
- New Jersey Census Records
- New Mexico Census Records
- New York Census Records
- North Carolina Census Records
- North Dakota Census Records
- Ohio Census Records
- Oklahoma Census Records
- Oregon Census Records
- Pennsylvania Census Records
- Rhode Island Census Records
- South Carolina Census Records
- South Dakota Census Records
- Tennessee Census Records
- Texas Census Records
- Utah Census Records
- Vermont Census Records
- Virginia Census Records
- Washington Census Records
- Washington DC Census Records
- West Virginia Census Records
- Wisconsin Census Records
- Wyoming Census Records
British Census
Canadian Census
- Census Returns on Microfilm, 1770-1856
- Census for Lower Canada, 1825
- Census for Lower Canada, 1831
- Census of 1842, Canada East
- Census of 1842, Canada West
- Census of 1851 (Canada East, Canada West, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia)
- Census of Canada, 1861
- Census of 1870, Manitoba
- Census of Canada, 1871
- Census of Canada, 1881
- Census of Canada, 1891
- Census of Canada, 1901
- Census of the Northwest Provinces, 1906
- Census of Canada, 1911
- Census of the Prairie Provinces, 1916
- Federal Census of 1871 (Ontario)
Recent Census Records
Recent posts on census records