There are Industry and Agriculture Schedules(lists do not exist for all counties for each year) availible for the years 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880. The Mortality Schedulesfor the years 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880. Union Veterans Schedules were conducted in 1890. Census of surviving Union veterans of the Civil War or their widows, listing service information, any service-connected disability, and current address.
The Nebraska State Historical Society has a copy of the 1860 federal schedules and the 1860–80 agriculture, industry, and mortality schedules.
The society holds microfilmed copies of the 1910 federal population schedule of Nebraska, but the census has not been indexed. The researcher can use a street guide to the larger towns of Omaha and Lincoln, which will aid in searching. City directories of Lincoln and Omaha are also helpful.
The Nebraska State Historical Society has the original enumerations for the territorial censuses. Territorial Census are available for 1854, 1855, and 1856 and indexed in Nebraska and Midwest Genealogical Records. All volumes of this now defunct publication are at the Nebraska State Historical Society. A few counties were recorded in censuses taken in 1867, 1874, 1875, 1878–79. Lancaster County was indexed and published in the Historical Records of Lancaster County Nebraska, Series 3, Vols. 1–13 (Lincoln, Nebr.: Genealogical Records Committee of the Deborah Avery Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, under sponsorship of the Nebraska State Historical Society, 1939.). A census for Otoe and Cuming counties was taken in 1865 and for Butler and Stanton counties in 1869. For details, request Reference Information Guide #2 from the Nebraska State Historical Society.
Microfilmed copies of the 1885 state census are at the Nebraska State Historical Society and the National Archives. The original 1885 population and special schedules are housed at the National Archives. It includes the names of all members of the household and encompasses agricultural, industrial, and mortality schedules. Although this census is not indexed, the researcher can use the 1886 Nebraska Gazetteer and Business Directory Index, on microfilm at the Nebraska State Historical Society, as a fairly accurate guide to the 1885 census. This is an alphabetical index listing farmers and businessmen in Nebraska. There is also an 1890 Nebraska Gazetteer and Business Directory, which lists farmers and businessmen by towns and counties. Microfilmed copies of these gazetteers are available by interlibrary loan.
School Censuses
Required by law, school censuses are taken every year in Nebraska. Those available at the Nebraska State Historical Society are for all of Adams (1875–77), Buffalo (1902–04), Cass (1860–1977), Chase (1910–77), Clay (1872–1912), Lancaster (1875–1972), and York (1905–73) counties; also available are portions of Burt, Butler, Dawson, Gage, Hall, Harlan, Jefferson, Johnson, Kearney, Madison, Nuckolls, Otoe, Saunders, Sherman and Washington counties for various years. A special school census for Lancaster County, taken in 1905, is partially indexed in Historical Records of Lancaster County Nebraska, cited previously.
There are numerous ways to determine the location in which to concentrate research for an ancestor. One of the most popular and productive is the census.
Alice Eichholz, Ph.D.,
In Ancestry’s Red Book: American State,County and Town Sources
Since 1790, the U.S. government has taken a nationwide population count every ten years. Unique in scope and often surprisingly detailed, the census population schedules created from 1790 to 1920 are among the most used of records created by the federal government. Over the course of two centuries the United States has changed significantly, and so has the census. From the six basic questions asked in the 1790 census, the scope and categories of information have changed and expanded dramatically.
Early censuses were essentially basic counts of inhabitants; but as the nation grew, so did the need for statistics that would reflect the characteristics of the people. In 1850, the focus of the census was radically broadened. Going far beyond the vague questions previously asked of heads of households, the 1850 census enumerators were instructed to ask the age, sex, color, occupation, birthplace, and other questions regarding every individual in every household. Succeeding enumerations solicited more information; by 1920, census enumerators asked twenty-nine questions of every head of household and almost as many questions of everyone else in the residence. (Only a very small segment of the 1890 census remains; a fire in the Commerce Department destroyed the vast majority of the original records for that year. Because of privacy considerations, census records less than seventy-two years old are not available to the general public; thus, the 1920 census is the most recent available to the public.)
Few, if any, records reveal as many details about individuals and families as do the U.S. federal censuses. The population schedules are successive “snapshots” of Americans that depict where and how they were living at particular periods in the past. Once home sources and library sources have been exhausted, the census is often the best starting point for further genealogical research. Statewide indexes (see “Indexes,” below) are available for almost every census; they are logical tools for locating individuals whose precise place of residence is unknown. While some inaccuracies are to be expected in census records, they still provide some of the most fascinating and useful pieces of personal history to be found in any source. If nothing else, census records are important sources for placing individuals in specific places at specific times. Additionally, information found in the census will often point to other sources critical to complete research, such as court, land, military, immigration, naturalization, and vital records.
The importance of census records does not diminish over time in any research project. It is always wise to return to these records as discoveries are made in other sources because, as you discover new evidence about individuals, some information that seemed unrelated or unimportant in a first look at the census may take on new importance.
When you can’t find family, vital, or religious records, census records may be the only means of documenting the events of a person’s life. Vital registration—the official recording of births, deaths, and marriages—did not begin until around 1920 in many areas of the United States, and fires, floods and other disasters since have destroyed some official government records. When other documentation is missing, census records are frequently used by individuals who must prove their age or citizenship status (or that of their parents) for Social Security benefits, insurance, passports, and other important reasons.
How to Find Census Records
All available federal census schedules (those made from 1790 to 1920) have been microfilmed and are available at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.; at the National Archives’ regional archives; at the Family History Library of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS church) in Salt Lake City and LDS family history centers throughout North America (see chapter 8, “The Family History Library and Its Centers”); at many large libraries; in genealogical society libraries; and through companies that lend microfilmed records. Some state and local agencies have census schedules for the state or area they serve. Generally, microfilm copies may be borrowed through interlibrary loan.
Starting With the Census
It is usually best to begin a census search in the most recently available census records (1920) and to work from what is already known about a family. With any luck, birthplaces and other clues found in these more recent records will point to locations of earlier residence.
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