Census Research Guide

Census Schedules are the handwritten information sheets recorded by Census takers for every population census since 1790. The schedules were usually large or ledger-sized pages. The information was recorded in the order in which the Census taker visited homes. In the 1940s, the schedules were microfilmed and the originals destroyed.

Census Schedules include the names of individuals and a varying amount of detail about their social and economic conditions. Genealogists often use the them for their initial research. Information from any given census is released 72 years after the date it was taken in order to protect the privacy of individuals. The latest Census schedules currently available are from the 1930 Census.

Information on the Census Schedules varies with the year the Census was taken. For example, literacy was first asked in 1830 and place of birth in 1850. Sample questionnaires appear in Population and Housing Inquiries in U.S. Decennial Censuses, 1790-1970 (Docs C3.214:39).

A complete digital set of the scanned microfilmed Census Schedules from 1790 to 1930 is available from the Internet Archive. The 1940 Census became freely available online on April 2, 2012, at the National Archives. The 1950 census was released digitally on April 1, 2022.

•  Native Americans in the Census, 1860–1890

• The USGenWeb Project: Native American

• For discussion of the various censuses of California Indians, see Cook, The Population of the California Indians, 1769-1970 (E78.C15 C698 1976) and chapters on Treaties and Litigation and its effects from the California volume of the Handbook of North American Indians (E76.2 .H36).

• California special Indian census 1910: National Archives film M595, roll 12 / edited and indexed by Larry S. Watson. (HumCo E78 C15 W38 1993, another copy on the 2nd floor.)
• Census of non-reservation California Indians, 1905-1906 / C.E. Kelsey (HumCo E78 C15 K45) Full text is online through Berkeley Library Digital Collections. For explanation and analysis of the Kelsey Census, see Larisa K. Hoover, Counting Context: C.E. Kelsey's 1906 Census of Nonreservation Indians in Northern California. American Indian Culture and Research Journal 38:2 (2014), pp. 41-66. https://doi.org/10.17953/aicr.38.2.l62h2r5280246383
• Copy of role approved in 1933, listing the Indians of California qualified under sec. 1 of the act of May, 18, 1928. (HumCo E78.C15 C6982 1933 – by appointment) This is the 1928 “Great Roll.” See also the complete microfilm of this census on microfilm, MF2663,and MF2664, M1853.
• Indian agency census: population, Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation 1887-1899 / Office of Indian Affairs, 13 annual folders. (HumCo E99.H8 I53 1887)