• My Home Page
• At Genealogy.com
• At FamilyTreeMaker.com
• My Online Data Library
• My Trees and Searches
• My Profile

	Family Finder First Name: Middle: Last:

Introduction to the 1900 Census

Introduction to the 1900 Census

This time period is also critical for many genealogists, particularly novices. Here, families begin stretching beyond the personal frame of reference for most patriarchs and matriarchs, who serve as primary sources for word-of-mouth family histories. Not only will the 1900 U.S. Census empower you to break through such research barriers with primary source records, it can also open doors to conduct 18th and 19th century research. For the first time, you can research the entire census, containing approximately 75 million names, quickly and easily from your home computer using a 25 million name head of household index.

One of the reasons the 1900 census is such a valuable resource is that most of the 1890 census was destroyed by a fire in the Commerce Department building on January 21, 1921. While not all of the forms were destroyed (in fact, portions do exist for Alabama, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, South Dakota, and Texas), most were so badly damaged that Congress authorized their disposal.

Additionally, the 1900 census provides unique information that was not included in the 1880 census nor in the 1910 census. For this reason, the 1900 census is uniquely able to fill in blanks in your family history.

The 1900 census was the first to employ the practice of noting how long an immigrant has been in the United States and whether that person was naturalized. It was also the first to list the following:

• Whether a farm or home was owned or rented (if owned, whether the property was mortgaged)
• How many years a person had been married
• Whether an individual spoke English
• How many children a mother had and how many of those children were still living
• If a person was a Civil War veteran or widow

This data set is unique because it includes not only a head of household index to the 1900 U.S. Census, but also images of the actual census itself. From the alphabetical name Index you can gather an ancestor's first and last name, county and location where they lived at the time of the census, and the microfilm page number on which their information appears. On a 1900 census image, you can find interesting details about an ancestor's life and clues for additional research. For information on how to use census records in your family history research, please see the chapter of this introduction called "Understanding Census Information."

We believe that overall, Genealogy.com's 1900 U.S. Census contains the highest-quality set of these images available. We scanned previously unused microfilm so that images show virtually no scratching. Images have been straightened, cropped, and cleaned. We have provided images in relatively small file sizes for faster download and lower disk usage. While Genealogy.com has taken great care to produce high-quality scans of these records, we recognize that the quality of the images scanned for this data set varies. In rare cases, portions of images are illegible.

When using this data, it is important to remember that these are 100 year-old documents. By the time the originals were photographed onto microfilm approximately 40 years after the census, the ink had faded and some of the pages were damaged by water, tape, ink splats, holes, bad folds, or tears. Additionally, the photographic quality often suffered due to exposure, lighting, and obstruction issues. In both of these scenarios, going back to even the original microfilm will not help to retrieve lost information.

In another scenario, due to the scanning process used to transfer the microfilm records and despite our best efforts, the center of an image may appear broken up or the edges may be blackened. In this rare case, referring to the original microfilm records will provide the needed information. These records are easy to locate, as the National Archives microfilm series, roll, and page numbers are recorded in both an individual's Index record and on screen above the actual census schedule image.

Information You Will Find in the 1900 United States Census

Index to This Data Set
You will find basic information about an individual in the 1900 Census index. You can reach the index by either the "Search" or "Browse" methods described below. In an index record, you will find the following information:

• Name — The individual's given name, middle name or initial (when available), and surname.
• Lived in — The specific locale where the individual resided at the time of the census. This field can contain the name of a city, town, ward, or district, plus county and state.
• Series/Microfilm/Book/Page — The location in the original microfilm where you will find this individual's record.

The Census Schedule Images
This data set is unique because it contains images of the actual 1900 U.S. Census. In general, each successive decennial census has gathered successively more detailed information. These census schedules are the most information-rich currently available. On a 1900 census image, you can find the following information about an individual:

• Name
• State, County, Township
• Street and house number (where appropriate)
• Relationship to head-of-household
• Color or race
• Sex
• Month and year of birth and age at last birthday
• Marital status and number of years married
• For married women, number of children born and number living
• Birthplace (state, territory, or country)
• Father's and Mother's birthplace
• Year of immigration and number of years in the United States
• Citizenship status for aliens or naturalized citizens over age 21
• Occupation (for each person 10+) and number of months not employed
• Information about school attendance
• Ability to read, write, and speak English
• Home ownership status, mortgage status, or farm residence

Finding Your Ancestors with this Data

1. Search
2. Browse
3. Go to County

1. Search
Because Genealogy.com has now indexed the 1900 U.S. Census by head of household, you can search for ancestors on any 1900 census project either before or after purchase. The FamilyFinder Index is available on most Genealogy.com pages, including your personal online data library and every census image and index page. When searching, results will provide a ranked list, organized by data collection. If you subscribe to the data collection listed, you can immediately access either this data introduction or the actual census image. If you do not own the project listed, you will find links to the purchase page for the corresponding data collection.

You may have difficulty locating some names for the following reasons:

• Some given names have been abbreviated. For example, "Robert" may appear as "Robt," and "Elizabeth" as "Eliz."
• Some given names are misspelled, contain typos, or may be spelled unusually.
• Some given and middle names are truncated. Specifically, this happens when the name, including the spaces between the given name, middle name, and last name, is longer than twenty-three characters. For example, "Robertson, Annabelle Margaret" would be listed as "Robertson, Annabelle Mar."

The index to this data set may contain typographical and transposition errors (for example, Neslon instead of Nelson). Many of these have been corrected, but if you do not find your ancestor, check under likely misspellings. Transcription errors also might appear in this index (for example, Counnon instead of Cammon; Charles Weineger instead of Charles Weisenger). Again, checking likely misspellings may turn up an entry for your ancestor.

If you are unable to locate a particular given name and surname, try switching the given name to an initial, abbreviation, or possible misspelling. If the surname is not common, you may also only want to search only on the surname.

2. Browse
After purchasing a 1900 census project, click the corresponding link for that title in your online data library. Enter the first three letters of the last name you are looking for. Click on "Go" and you will be brought to the page where that name initially appears. From that point, you can browse backward and forward in the index, using the "Previous Page" and "Next Page" links. When you find an ancestor's name, select the "See Page Image" link to view the actual census image page referencing that name. With the convenience of having the original census at your fingertips, it is possible to look for people omitted from the index. Browse the index for relatives or neighbors who lived in the same area and look to the adjoining pages for your ancestors.

3. Go to County
You may also navigate this data using the "Go to County" feature. Centered at the bottom of the image page, you'll find a "Go to County" drop-down menu and a "Page" box. Using this feature, you can search for ancestors by location. If you already know an ancestor's county of residence and the original census microfilm page, you may enter that information, and select "Go" to locate that record. If you know only county of residence, select that county then and select "Go" to browse the images from the first record for that county. Please note, on a project containing multiple states, the drop-down menu will only reflect counties in the state corresponding to the current image. To find a county in another state, go to the "Browse" screen and choose an individual from the state you want. Go to the corresponding image page and from there you can access counties in that state from the drop-down menu. This is another way of locating an ancestor not included in the index. If you already know where your ancestor lived, you can page through the census and browse the records for that area. Or, you could find information about your ancestor's neighbors or relatives who lived in the same area and browse the adjoining pages for your ancestor.

Understanding Census Information

Over the decades, census enumerators inadvertently created complicated and confusing problems in the census records. Most of these problems are simply due to unintended mistakes. In addition, many original records have unfortunately been subject to decades of unprofessional archival storage and general public misuse.

As you use this data collection, please remember the following: The final burden of proof in determining the correctness or incorrectness of a name in a census index or record lies with you, the researcher. In addition, the best research arises from individuals pursuing independent verification and relying on multiple research sources.

Below, we'll examine the various mistakes found in census materials. At best we can only give you a basic outline of what pitfalls you may expect. If you have trouble finding a name in the index, take some of these pitfalls into account. You may end up finding the name in a place that you did not expect it to be.

The Census Enumerators
Each enumerator and census marshall had a different level of education. Therefore, spelling names in various languages may have been difficult for them, so they may have made errors when recording names.

Cultural Spellings
It was not unusual at all to have had an Englishman enumerating the German names, Italian names, and Slavic names; you may have a Frenchman enumerating the German names, or a German enumerating the English and French names. Try an experiment with the common name of "Smith." Pronounce it with the accent spoken by a native of a particular cultural background. We come up with the following spellings based on those pronunciations: "Smith," "Smythe," "Schmith," "Schymthe," "Smite," "Smithee" and so forth. All of the above are actually found as various spellings of the English "Smiths."

Phonics
Spelling by sound is the most common method of recording names. It is a practice that still takes place today. The way a name appears on a census record depended on how the name was said, how the enumerator heard it, and how he or she interpreted it on paper. Many enumerators were not well-educated and mixed guesswork with phonetic sounds to record what they heard.

Time Periods
The contemporary name "Polk" was spelled "Pollok" or "Pollock" several hundred years ago. The name "Fisher" today was more frequently spelled "Pfisher" or "Pfister" in early colonial America. Good researchers will always take into consideration the "zone" or "time period" changes as they research their genealogy or do other historical research. An excellent rule of thumb is this: "Just because it is spelled one way today and has been for a long time, does not mean that it was or has been spelled this way since the origin of the name."

Multiplying Letters
As researchers, we all too often look for the usual or ordinary. Quite often we should be thinking of the unusual or out of the ordinary. The name "Booth" is generally spelled with only two "o"s. In actuality it was spelled "Boooth" by some enumerators. The name "Alexander" can and has been spelled "Allexxanndderr." Another example would be the name "Briggs" as "Bbrriggss" or "Brriggss."

Reduction in the Use of Letters
While we have the one extreme of adding letters, we also have the other extreme of the reduction of letters. To continue the example of the name of "Briggs," it is often spelled "Brggs" or "Brgs", totally deleting the "i" and the double letter. Here are a few other examples: "Green" as "Gren;" "Hannah" as "Hanna" or "Hana;" "Allen" as "Alen;" "McAllister" as "McAlister;" and "Mitchell" as "Mitcel" or "Mitchal."

Vowel Interchanging
The use of various vowels can place a name in an index many pages apart from other names of the same species. Use these examples: "Myers," "Mires," "Meyers," "Maeyers" and "Miers" are all placed in an index, some close together and some many pages apart. "Alexander" and "Elexander" not only would not be found under the same first letter, but would appear in different sections of an index. So the genealogical researcher should in many respects disregard vowels when making name searches. Here are a few examples:

Mis-Formed Letters or Look-Alike Letters
In one instance, researchers misread the name "Lebello" as "Sebello." The "L" and "S" are quite often written identically, making it difficult for even handwriting experts to tell the difference. The "I" and "J" can also be difficult to distinguish when just written as initials. In addition, an open-topped "a" can be mistaken for a "u," or a close-topped "u" or open-topped "o" can all be confused with each other. The possible combinations are unlimited.

Single Name Factor
Until the last part of the 19th century, many cultures only used one name for a person. In addition, many religious orders only gave their members one name. These practices make it difficult to index names using the current two-name convention that most cultures use. If only a first name was obtainable from the census, it will not appear in the Index. However, single surnames will appear.

An individual whose name was "Cunningham" could be indexed in any of the following ways:

Whenever a first name appeared in conjunction with any portion of a surname, such as "John D.," it was included in this data collection. Depending on how the original name appeared, it could be indexed in any of the following ways:

Titles and Other Name Designations
The almost endless range of titles includes military rank, occupation, ranking in the family, government stations, religious, and many more. In data collections containing census information, most titles appear in front of the given name, but do not affect name alphabetization. Thus, "Lieutenant John Smith" would appear as "Smith, Lieutenant John." He would be listed next to all of the other individuals named "Smith, John," rather than next to those whose first names started with "L." As a side note, "Doctor" was not only an occupational title, but was sometimes a legal first name in the 19th century.

Titles that normally come after a name, such as "Sr.," "Jr.," "II," or "Esq." appear after the given name. For example, "John Smith, Jr." would appear as "Smith, John, Jr."

Listing of Ethnic Names
This broad category of names includes American Indians, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, and Mexicans, among others. The methods used to index these names can vary greatly. Some examples include the following:

People Listed in Religious Orders
The names of individuals in religious orders can be difficult to find, because the individuals frequently took names other than their legal birth names, or they chose to use only one of their names. Following are examples of how religious order names may have been indexed:

Nicknames and Variations
It is quite common to call an individual by a much shorter name than what they were given at birth. The following examples give the real names and the possible nicknames:

However, never assume that all nicknames are short for a longer given name. "Bess," "Liz," "Ben," "Freddy" are all very real given names.

Voluntary and Involuntary Information
Several types of mistakes resulted when individuals purposefully or unknowingly gave the census enumerators incorrect information. For example, some Germanic people remembered the compulsory military service requirements of the old country and did not know the laws in America. They often felt that if they divulged their correct names and ages they would be inducted into US military service. To avoid being located, they would often use their middle name(s), delete their first names or surnames, or use only their christening names. Albert Martin Frederick Nass could thus appear in the records under the following variations:

Since the enumerators were being paid by the number of names they gathered, they did not always take the data from a member of the household they were enumerating. Many enumerators traveled long distances on foot, so when they came to an empty dwelling it was common practice to have a neighbor volunteer the information. This practice compounds the errors made on the original census manuscripts, and perpetuated by indexers or researchers. Here is an example of the actual information given by the individuals themselves, and what the neighbor reported:

As you can see, the information provided by the neighbor was somewhere within the realm of truth, but by no means accurate.

Changing Names
Since the colonization of America in the early 1600's it has been a common practice for individuals, and especially immigrants to change their names. However, it was not until the mid-19th century or later that people were required to officially register their changed names in a court of law. (An examination of the Enumeration Returns for the 1890 Census of Veterans and Widows of the Wars reveals that hundreds, if not thousands, of men and women entered the United States Armed Forces under one name, and sometime after their military obligation was up, the census indicated that they had lived under an assumed name or names.) It's not uncommon to find individuals listed under three or four names.

We give the following examples:

Your Privileges and Responsibilities as a Subscriber

Here, we'll present some appropriate and inappropriate uses of online data and you'll learn how to make the best use of these resources. For example, can you rent out your online data? Is it okay to look up other people's ancestors for them? Read on and find out.

Why is this Data Copyrighted?

The fact is, nobody can own the historical information itself. Instead, publishers (such as Genealogy.com) earn copyright protection by adding value to the bare facts. Publishers start with information available in public or private record and add value to that data. For example, we add value to genealogical data by:

• Selecting which records and data fields to compile
• Filling in missing or incomplete areas by merging sources
• Interpreting ambiguous information
• Arranging their compilation in a unique format
• Adding retrieval software to make the data easy to search
• Scanning the original documents for viewing, printing, and downloading.

Basically, we help minimize the barriers between you and the family history information you seek. US copyright laws protect the use of information published in indexes, abstracts, interpretations, and search engines, even if they don't apply to the original data. Because online data collections are entitled to this protection, and because Genealogy.com has paid considerable costs for their development, we rely on copyright law to help safeguard that investment.

Acceptable Use of Subscription Data

For your own research, of course, you may use any and all data from a Family Archive that you've purchased. If you have an opportunity to collaborate with others, that collaboration can be a great advantage as long as you adhere to certain guidelines set up under copyright law.

Copyright law permits sharing of "small quantities" of data with family members and friends, and if applicable, with clients of your professional genealogical services. "Small quantities" means specific pieces of information. For example, it is okay to share information about a nuclear family (a mother, father, sister, or brother) with a fellow researcher or to provide the names of all individuals with the same first or last name living in a certain county in a certain decade. You may also share complete information about one individual that you find using your subscription.

The key thing to remember is that it's okay to use your subscription to help someone else quickly fill in a small blank in their family research. If they want to rely on your subscriptions for anything more than a name here or a date there, however, they should buy their own copies to use.

What to do in Questionable Situations

"Fair Use" is a compromise between having very strict interpretations of copyright protection and having no restrictions at all. "Fair Use" is determined by the following four standards:

Sharing small quantities of a copyrighted material is permitted, but if a publisher perceives that copyright protection is being violated, he can bring legal action against the alleged person or company. Judges use the four rules of "Fair Use" to determine whether a copyright has been violated. Generally, courts are more lenient towards educational and nonprofit use of copyrighted materials than they are towards commercial enterprises. That's why, for example, libraries may be allowed to let many different patrons share the same published materials. Keeping the four rules of "Fair Use" in mind will help you make the best use of your subscriptions in questionable situations.

To illustrate what would not be considered "Fair Use," the next section gives some examples of copyright abuse.

Unacceptable Use of Subscription Data

Before sharing or copying data from your subscriptions, please understand that the following activities are illegal:

• Systematically making a subscription freely available to more than one person at a time.
• Systematically making large parts (i.e. the whole collection or the results of more than two or three blanket searches) of a data collection's contents freely available to others.
• Uploading all or part of a data collection's contents onto a web site.
• Circulating a printout taken straight off the data set.

Please remember that if someone wants to use your subscriptions for an undirected, general search, they are clearly interested in doing research. That makes them a potential Genealogy.com customer and sharing such large quantities of information with that person would be a violation of "Fair Use."

Of course, there is still some open ground between what is appropriate to share and what is inappropriate to share - we trust you to use your best judgment when weighing such a decision. One thing to keep in mind is that when you share large amounts of information with others, it shrinks the number of customers who help pay the costs involved in producing online data collections. We price Family Archives at very reasonable levels with the expectation that most of the people who want to use them will purchase their own copies. When subscribers ignore their responsibility, it makes it more difficult to renew the resources needed to keep bringing valuable data to family historians.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Can I charge people a fee to let them use my subscriptions?
  No, you may not rent out your subscriptions. Such use, especially if you publicize an offer, is a violation of "Fair Use" because it harms the potential market for online data collections. The more people you try to attract with your offer of renting your subscriptions, the clearer your intention to profit is shown, and the greater your violation of our copyright.
  
  You can, however, charge people a fee for your research services if you look up information for them on your subscription and use it to compile an overall family history for them. That's because (just like we add value to the original data by publishing it in an easy-to-use format) you are adding your own value to the information by compiling an original family history. If you're creating a pedigree, assembling a list of someone's relatives, or tracking all records for a "Katherine Conrad of Ohio," for example, then it's appropriate to use your subscriptions as much and as often as you need to.
  
  Just be sure that the information you deliver to your client is originally yours. The information should not be copied electronically off the Family Archive (such as a screen download or printout) because that requires no expertise, takes only mechanical effort, and does not add any value to the copyrighted work. Asking someone to pay for a screen shot is so similar to renting your subscription that it can't be considered "Fair Use."
  
  
• What if my neighbor wants to look up her grandmother on my subscription?
  That's fine. Your neighbor has a specific person in mind to search for and she'll only be using a tiny portion of the data from your subscription. If she later buys a different subscription of her own, hopefully she'll return the favor and let you do a search or two!
  
  
• Can I use my subscriptions to answer a search request on an electronic bulletin board?
  No. Posting the results of a broad search on an electronic bulletin board is always a violation of copyright because the information is distributed to a large number of people. On the other hand, if you and another specific person want to use e-mail to communicate with each other, it's fine to share small quantities of specific data from your subscriptions. As long as your messages aren't being broadcast to an entire bulletin board community, e-mail can be a real time-saver for checking and finding family history facts quickly.
  
  
• Is Genealogy.com Serious?
  Yes. Genealogy.com actively protects its rights wherever copyright abuse might have a measurable negative impact on the company's business interests. Genealogy.com's foundation for copyright protection of online data collections is solid. When the company has cause for legal action against violators of its copyright, it will not hesitate to pursue such action.