Free Census Records
Online genealogy researchers know that finding free census records takes patience while wading through the multitude of record offerings on the Internet.
National Archive census records from 1940 to present are not available due to a statute prohibiting public access for 72 years from the census date. This was established to protect the privacy of American citizens. However, records from 1790-1930 are now publicly accessible. The 1940 census records will open in 2012.
Nearly every state in the United States has free census records available online. Even records prior to the computer age are now being transcribed for use on the Internet. State and community volunteers spend hours pouring over faded, and often, illegible, handwritten census entries in order to make your job easier. It's tough, painstaking and tedious work to transcribe, image, and index old records.
The USGenWeb Census Project is one such all-volunteer census transcription site, which began in 1997. Always looking for volunteers, the project's completed transcriptions appear on the USGenWeb Archives. The archive is a searchable, free database for researchers such as genealogists who need census and other historical information.
Free census records generally include the following information:
- physical address
- occupant name and relationship to head occupant of family
- about the residence, whether it is owned, rented, home value
- gender
- race
- citizenship status
- age
- marital status
- educational status
- occupation or trade, unemployed, class of work
- military experience, what war, and when, rank, active servicemen listed as residents of their posts, not their hometowns.
Some questions may be tailored to location or race, especially in earlier censuses. Each census asks questions that reflect the culture and government of the time. Note that early census information may have inaccuracies as the checks and balances of the process had yet to be established to today's standards.
