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Fast Menu
1790 | 1800 | 1810
1820 | 1830 | 1840
1850 | 1860 | 1870
1880 | 1890 | 1900
1910 | 1920 | 1930
Subdistricts and Enumeration Districts
Page and sheet numbering system
About the header on each page
About the columns on each page
Various sources of the census records
EXAMPLES of how you will see names on the census
HISTORY of the United States
Federal Census, 1790-1920
Notes for you to keep while working on your transcription
A basic overview of the census and its history
What is involved in being a second transcriber?
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Remember, please sign up with a
State
Census Coordinator before beginning a transcription.
The following following are available to our volunteer transcribers so that our
file managers can convert them to the standardized text output to meet the
goals of the project.
- CENTRANS (MAC & PC)
- We have the following templates available for download:
[Note: These are zipped and are also available by request from
Maggie Stewart.
Please use "templates" as the subject of your email and include
what year and type of template that you need.]
Header Information That's Needed:
- Census Year
- Microfilm # (NARA Microfilm Series M637)
- State
- County
- Subdistrict
- Enumerator
- Enumeration Date
Columns present in the census: [Columns highlighted
in red are additional columns that we require to
be filled out unless otherwise noted.]
- Page # (If this is not there start
with page number one and go up in numerical order.)
- Line # (This needs to be added
starting at 1 for each page)
- Head of Household Last Name
- Head of Household First Name
- Free White Males 16 and up including Head
- Free White Males 0-15
- Free White Females
- Other Free Persons (Colored)
- Slaves
- Transcriber's Remarks (Fill this out
only if some additional comment is needed.)
A few states had other columns, if your census enumeration has them,
please add them.
Special Notes/Comments:
- States with surviving 1790 census schedules:
- Connecticut
- Maine District (of Massachusetts)
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- New Hampshire
- New York
- North Carolina
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- Vermont (1791)
- Only in MA were standard printed forms used. Every where else was told
to use whatever they had at hand. Not until 1830 were standard forms used.
(Entries are all handwritten in this census - if typed you are using the
1908 Index)
- Total Number of Persons in each household (Some States did this)
- Pages were added between 1900 and 1907 as part of the preparation for the
index published in 1908.
- In 1908 the Census Bureau published a 12 volume
index of Heads of Household in the 1790 census. While this is not a
substitute for the actual census schedules, it is a valuable additional
source of information.
- In a few places you can make out enumerators name, enumeration date non
existant.
- In a few places the Slave column is omitted.
- In a few places omitted the Free Colored column. (North Carolina)
- In some locations there is a running total at the bottom.
- One state has a column for Number of Heads of Household and then everyone
with the same surname and only put heads of household in total.
- In Vermont they have columns for free Blacks just like Free whites.
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When transcribing the census
MAKE A BACKUP COPY!
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