Tuesday's Tip - Inputting Data on the 1820 Census

1820 U.S. Federal Census

Last week I talked about the 1810 census and how similar it was to the 1800 census.  This week we'll take a look at the 1820 census...and what a census!  We started getting our act together here!  More data than in the last three and by the looks of it a fair bit more organized!  Still not as much data here as we genealogists enjoy in the later censuses, but we can now see at least the type of work the people were engaged in and the number of people of foreign birth that were not naturalized.  It still only gives the names of the heads of household, but you can at least tell a bit more about citizenship/birth and that may lead you to documents!

The census form each person spreads over 2 pages, so make sure you check out both sides or you'll be wondering where the rest of the information is!

The people at the U.S. Census Bureau have not only posted on their site a copy of the legislation enacting the 4th U.S. Census, a.k.a. the 1820 census, but the statistics from that census, the oaths sworn by the census takers and their version of the census form!

The 4th U.S. Census was conducted under the direction of the Secretary of State.  The legislation was enacted in March of 1820 and the census began in August 1820, concluding in September 1821.

The people at www.1930census.com have once again provided a map to what our country looked like at the time the census was taken.  Sadly, their timeline/historic data for this decade is down,  for the count.  Hopefully we'll see some great historical context in there soon!

I've got to say that creating these inputtable forms is really helping me understand that you can get more out of the older censuses than we may realize.  Next week I'll have the 1830 census ready to post and then the week after the 1840 census (and the first one that I really have any family in America to use!).  

As for the inputtable form, the same applies as before:

1)  The Google document claims to be more than one page, but rest assured that once you download the form it will be one page only

2)  The form is locked so you don't have to worry about typing in the wrong fields and erasing the census questions.  You can only make changes to the blank fields.

3)  If there is any trouble downloading the form please let me know and I'll see what can be done to fix it.

Remember to get to the Google Form just click on the image at the top of the blog post or the 1820 link in the first paragraph.

Until next week I hope you enjoy the forms and enjoy tending those roots!