U.S. Census Records Compared

Ancestry.com

• all years, complete
• fully indexed, with some variant spellings offered and now improving 1900
• ability to annotate
• * and ? searching
• the ability to limit to state, county, town as well as add other criteria ... and indexing errors.

Footnote:

• only 1860
• 99% complete (as of 10/14/08)
• indexing appears to be complete
• Results appear to be the number of pages, not the number of individuals
• I had trouble getting it to narrow reliably to a first name.

GenealogyBank

• Does not include census records

World Vital Records

• 1880 (first installment)
• 1790 Heads of Families
• a few random transcriptions and indexes
• partnership with allcensus (browsable, not indexable -- and not complete)

Free

Heritage Quest: not all census years indexed; indexes are head of household only (review at About.com)

U.S. Census Bureau 1790 transcription

Family Search: 1880

FamilySearch Labs: growing collection

Some sites try to keep track of the ever growing census records available online. Check these sites to see what is available.

• Census links: US
• CensusFinder.com
• CensusOnline
• U.S. GenWeb Census Project. U.S. GenWeb Census Project Census Researchers FAQ gives information for using this site.

Last updated February 21, 2010