Accessing online census records for genealogy research

To research your genealogy once meant an enormous amount of legwork including writing letters requesting information from far away courthouses, visiting dusty basements, and out of the way records in backrooms of courthouses and churches. That is whenever you managed to track down a lead. In truth, much of this has not changed and you can often still find information in these ways, especially if seeking information from a small town that may not have found its way into the online world of information sharing. Thanks to the Internet though, much more information than anyone ever thought humanly possible is now available at the typing of a few keys into a computer that is connected to the World Wide Web. For genealogists, census records are the one set of documents that many have been looking forward to being easily accessible and available online.

How to Begin

How do you access them though, and find what you are looking for in this swelling sea of information? As with any information that is both online and genealogy related, the more information you start your intended search with the better. Gather all the family information you can, such as family stories that may contain tidbits of information you will never be able to harvest any other place. Once you have exhausted these resources and gleamed all the information you can, then it is time to search the census records.

Where to Look

It has been an ongoing project to make the census records available online to ease searching through this very inclusive, huge wealth of resources. Thankfully, it is now possible to search all of the available census records for a fee. Some parts of different census records, though limited, are also available free. Ancestry.com has by far the most detailed search capabilities. They do charge a fee, which can vary depending on the length of time you want your subscription to last. The subscription also includes access to several more of their databases. Genealogy.com, owned by the same company as Ancestry.com, also has several databases, including the complete U.S. Census records from 1790-1930. Included in this extensive compilation are over 550 million names.

What Will You Find

If you are new to genealogy and wonder why anyone would want to view these old records, consider the fact that in any given census record you have the chance to discover the following information:

- Surname spellings, that may differ from what you assumed were original

- Complete or partial addresses

- Gender

- Race

- Age at time of census including birth month and year

- Parent’s birthplaces

- Immigration information

- Occupations and how long employed

- Ownership of farms or residences

- Education

- Health information

- Family relationships

Using the Search Form

To start a search once you have a subscription and have completed registration, you will be required to fill in some basic information. A first name along with surname, town or township, state, and years you would like to search, birthplace, parent’s birthplaces, and marital status may all be entered to help narrow the search. If you happen to have reference information including microfilm roll, enumeration district, etc, these can usually be included to help in providing you with as accurate information as possible. Keep in mind that not all of this information must be provided. You can start by providing as much or as little information as you have.

Copies of the Originals

The great thing about searching through Ancestry.com and any of the other online census records is that you are supplied with a visual copy of the original census record including photos. You can then view them online, and print copies for your own keeping. Keep in mind that if the copy you are viewing is not readable, make sure you are using the supplied viewer from whichever site you are using. Moreover, no more having to look through endless rolls of microfilm, where you have at best a limited chance of finding whomever you are searching for, unless you already have the majority of the information available.

Thanks to its online status, nearly anyone now has the opportunity to discover the secrets that may be waiting in the massive files of the many different census records. Good luck on your search!