U.S. Census: Data on Individuals

HeritageQuest Online
Includes scanned images of the US Federal Census schedules for 1790-1940 (still incomplete for 1940), including name indexes for many years. It also includes genealogies, local histories, primary source materials, and genealogical and local history serials including material from all 50 states and Canada; PERSI (Periodical Source Index); Revolutionary War pension and bounty land warrant application files; and Freedman's Bank records (ongoing).

Ancestry Library Edition
Coverage of the U.S. , U.K., Canada. and other areas. Contains historical documents and photos, including: census; local narratives; oral histories; church, court, immigration, and vital records; and indexes. More than 4,000 databases and 1.5 billion names including U.S. federal census images and indexes from 1790 to 1940. The Library Edition of Ancestry.com has fewer personalized functions and options than the versions available to private subscribers.

For more genealogy resources, see the Library Guide on Genealogy.

The Census Schedules are handwritten lists of names and other personal information from which the printed Census statistical publications were derived.

These lists indicate which population schedules the Microforms collection in the basement (Lower Level 1) of Bostock Library holds for each decade, the number of microfilm reels for each state, and the call number. (Special non-population schedules are listed in the chart to the right.) 

These are supplementary schedules that were discarded many years ago by the Census Bureau, but then saved by Congress, which sent them to various repositories. Duke eventually got the ones listed below. (Typically, original Census records are held by and filmed by the National Archives.)

• Working copies are on microfilm on Bostock Lower Level 1 (L1, or basement). See the table below.
• Originals located in Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

The collection contains the original returns compiled by the census enumerator. Schedules exist in four main categories: agriculture, manufacturing, "defective, dependent, and delinquent classes," and social statistics. The 7th (1850); 8th (1860); 9th (1870); and 10th (1880) censuses are included, while the states covered are Colorado, District of Columbia, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Virginia, with scattered records for Montana, Nevada, and Wyoming. In many cases the returns are not complete. For a given schedule all counties of a state may not be represented.

The listing below may also contain a few other non-population schedules obtained from sources other than the Rubenstein Library.