Censuses? Or should it be “censi”? (Or maybe even “censūs,” for us Latin scholars? I always liked the 4th Declension.)

Whatever.

The first problem is where to look. Google, of course, is your friend. And some people swear by various AI tools. In any case, here is one example of a successful search, clipped from the 1915 NY state census:

Successful, but very limited information. At least the handwriting is legible, in contrast to the 1910 U.S. census:

Here the AI reads the surname Yohalem as Yohalend, generating this incorrect family list:

Another problem is the 1890 U.S. Census. You can’t find it. Why? You can find the answer in many places, such as Family Search:

A census was taken in 1890. In fact, it was the most extensive yet, since it captured expanded information on nearly 63 million people…. Despite all the data collected, very little survives today. Most of it was destroyed in not 1 but 2 fires. Worse, a prior practice of making copies of census volumes to keep at the local level was not continued in 1890.

You can find an excellent discussion of the fires and related issues in Prologue Magazine.

Why, you may wonder, was 1890 so relevant to my family? You’ve probably guessed the answer: they arrived in America from Russia in 1888, so the 1890 Census was the earliest info we have.

Here is the summary that Ancestry provides for my maternal grandmother, the family matriarch, Ella Yohalem Heyman:

There’s also a family tree, of course. And you may be wondering what’s up with her having two siblings named Sam, and why the presence or absence of a space after a comma is so inconsistent. The latter remains a mystery, but I will answer the first question in a later post.

Categories: Life