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New York Census Records

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Federal Population Schedules that exist for New York are 1790, 1800, 1810, 1820, 1830, 1840, 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1890 (fragment, see below), 1900, 1910, 1910, 1920 and 1940. There are Industry and Agriculture Schedules availible for the years 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880. Slave Schedules exist for 1850 & 1860. The Mortality Schedules for the years 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880. Union Veterans Schedules were conducted in 1890.

Microfilms of the federal censuses for New York, 1790–1910, and corresponding book and microfilm indexes are available in several places throughout the state and country. There are three published indexes for the 1800 census. The 1850 index published by AISI covers only half of the towns for Westchester County, as the other half were indexed in error from the 1860 census. Some counties have their “short form” copies of the 1880 census, which serve as complete indexes (by district) to that census. Within the state, the National Archives-Northeast Region has complete sets of these records as does the New York Public Library, the New York State Library, and the Onondaga County Public Library. The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society has the census through 1920 for New York. Most of these collections include the 1910 street indexes to enumeration districts for the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Many libraries with genealogical collections have films of most or all the censuses for their particular county and often for surrounding counties.

Several early New York censuses have been published, many in Tree Talks, some in The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, and in the volumes by Ralph Van Wood for Cayuga, Herkimer, Oneida, and Ontario counties. Two enumerations were taken in New York City in 1870. Parts of the enumerations for the towns of Eastchester (Westchester County) and Brookhaven (Suffolk County) are among the few surviving schedules of the 1890 federal census. A Manhattan 1890 police census, available at the Municipal Archives, also fills part of the void of the destroyed federal census. Damaged and missing censuses include the following:

  • 1810: Cortland and part of Broome County—missing
  • 1860: Chenango and Columbia counties—damaged
  • 1880: Suffolk County and New York City Wards 21 and 22—damaged

  Colonial and State Schedules: Some important censuses were taken in colonial New York, some of which have been extracted and published.

Of almost greater value in New York than the federal are the state censuses, taken every ten years from 1825 to 1875, in 1892, and again in 1905, 1915, and 1925 (pre-1825 state censuses and state copies of those for 1855–1905 were destroyed in the 1911 state library fire). Most of these censuses that have survived can be found with the county clerk, although some are with the county historian or in other locations.

Indexes have been prepared for some of the state censuses and are usually found with the county historian or at the county historical society. The state copies of the census perished in the 1911 New York State Library fire.

The 1825, 1835, and 1845 state censuses are similar to pre-1850 federal censuses in that only the name of the head of the household is listed, although there is valuable information about the composition of the household, its agriculture and commerce, and so forth. Beginning in 1855, every person is listed, with his or her relationship to the head of the household, and, if a native New Yorker, the county of birth is shown. Years of residency in the town or city in which enumerated are also given, as is citizenship status for adult males. The 1865 census dropped the years residency column but added ones for parents of how many children and number of times married. It also listed active and veteran servicemen. Later state censuses provide similar information, although the schedules for 1892 listed only name, sex, color, age, country of birth, whether or not a U. S. citizen, and occupation. The date and court of naturalization for naturalized citizens was a feature of the 1925 census.

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