Which federal census records are available to the public?

Question

Which federal census records are available to the public?

Answer 1

I think the ones from 1908 and back.  Mormons have the best kept records in the world you can look on line to see if there is a Mormon church near you and they should be able to tell you if there is a record center near by

good luck

Answer 2

You top contributors don't need to get so hoitty toitty about it.

Answer 3

I'm not sure, but you can probably get that information from your city hall.

Answer 4

The 1790 thru 1930 are available to the general public. The 1940 should be available in 2012.  There is a law that they cannot be made available for 72 years due to invasion of privacy.  However, there are some pushing to have the number of years increased.

Ancestry.Com has them all. They have also transcribed them.  You can view their transcriptions or the original images.  Now, there are errors in their transcriptions but when you view the original in many cases, you will have pity on the transcribers.  Ancestry.Com is not free but your public library might have a subscription to it you can use.  Genealogy libraries for years have had the censuses that were available on microfilm.

Answer 5

The U. S.Government has only released federal census records through 1930.  There are no more available, regardless if you join a group or not.

Answer 6

If your local library offers Heritage Quest, it has a good census section.  I think the census at Anc,com are free,  Also, some libraries have census CDs you can use on their computers.

Answer 7

Should be all of them.

Answer 8

Pretty amazing. The first four answers are wrong. Lucky Shirley T was here to give you the correct information.

City hall has nothing to do with federal censuses.

"All of them" isn't true. 1940 - 2000 are sealed by federal law.

1908 wasn't a census year.

Some, not many, county-level sites have census transcriptions for some townships for some years. I'd guess less than 5% of the 1790 - 1870 and 1900 - 1930 were available for free. For the complete 1790 - 1930 you (or your public library) need to subscribe to Ancestry.com or Heritage Quest.

If you go to one of the 12 National Archives, or a BIG library (Sutro in SF, UC Berkeley, the Peabody in Yale) you may find some census indexes,or even census images on microfilm. The Mormons put the 1880 on-line for all. It doesn't have Oklahoma, which was Indian Territory then. 1880 is the only complete census that is on-line for free, and you get the transcription, not the images.

The easiest thing is probably to go to a Family History Center some evening and ask if someone will log into their Ancestry Account and let you use it for an hour. The chances someone at an FHC has an Ancestry subscription are pretty good.  As good as asking if someone in the lounge area at the Beta Theta Pi house has a Playboy subscription, actually. Different people have different tastes, but they tend to congregate with people who share those tastes.

I LOVE Yahoo! How often do you get to compare little old chamomile tea-drinking Mormon ladies to thick-necked, thick-headed, beer-swilling sexist male oafs?

Answer 9

If you are looking for online records, they only go up to 1930 on the free sites.

I have heard that ancestry.com has more info, but they are rather pricey