Searching the US Census in One Step
Frequently Asked Questions

Stephen P. Morse, San Francisco

1. What census years does this cover?

All of the census years for which ancestry.com has a searchable name index.  That includes every decade year from 1790 to 1930 with the exception of 1890.  The 1890 census was lost in a fire.  The census records after 1930 have not yet been made public.
 

2. Why do I need to log on to genealogy.com before I can use your search form?

I do not have a searchable database for the census on my website.  But genealogy.com has such a database and they have a search engine that can search for people in that database.  They make this available on a subscription basis.  All my search form does is direct you to the genealogy.com search engine.  So you'll need to log on at the genealogy.com site in order to be able to use their search engine.
 

3. How do I use your search form if I am at a library that has a subscription to genealogy.com?

If you are at such a library, you never explictly log on to genealogy.com.  Instead you get to genealogy.com by going through a sequence of webpages, and once there you are automatically logged on.  Your librarian will show you how to do this.  After you've done this once, you will be able to use my search form.
 

4. What are the advantages of your one-step search form over the search form on the genealogy.com website

My search form lets you search in any state in any census year from one place.  On the genealogy.com website you need to navigate to a separate form for each year and state that you want to search in.
 

5. How can I do wildcard searches (i.e., searching on parts of a name) or soundex searches (i.e., searching on names that sound alike)?

The genealogy.com search engine does not support such searches.
 

-- Steve Morse