Monday, October 21, 2013

Dear Randy: Are the U.S. Census Records Available on FindMyPast.com?

In my post Will FindMyPast.com Images be Available Through FamilySearch? (posted 18 October 2013), Tara asked (in comments):

"I've been considering subscribing to findmypast.com. Can you please tell me if they offer access to all of the U.S. censuses?"

Tara, the short answer is YES.  They have a search engine that finds census page images and transcriptions for all of the United States Census records from 1790 to 1940 available though their subscription service (either a monthly/yearly subscription or by buying credits over a fixed time period).  See their subscription page at https://www.findmypast.com/payments.

However, there are some drawbacks:

1)  You can download the census image to your computer or a flash drive, but you cannot print it directly from the screen.

2)  The transcription of the specific person searched for can be viewed in a short form or a full form (which also lists other persons in the household).  You can print this transcription using your browser Print function or can save the HTML page.

3)  The user cannot browse the census pages from page to page.

4)  The search engine permits the following options:

**  First name = enter name; exact or variant check box; wild cards permitted

**  Last name = enter name; exact or variant check box (I don't know if it's only Soundex); wild cards permitted

* When Event = Born, Died, Other Event
**  Year field = enter the event year
**  Year Range = +/- 0, 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 or 40 years

*  Where Event = World, Australia/New Zealand, Canada, Ireland, United Kingdom, United States
** Location field = enter the country, state/province, county, etc.

If you receive many matches, you can filter them by category and by specific collection

5)  There collection of United States and Canadian records is limited, but they have an excellent Ireland and United kingdom collection that is available with their U.S. subscription.

6)  There are probably other drawbacks, but those are what I recall from my previous work.

The benefits of FindMyPast.com are these, as I see it:

1)  The cost is relatively low compared to Ancestry.com.

2)  If you have a significant United Kingdom ancestry, their collections are extensive, and a subscription is very worthwhile.

3)  For the census records, they have a different set of name indexes, a different search engine, and a different set of images which might be helpful.

UPDATE:  I wrote this post on Sunday due to time constraints, but it went into Draft mode rather than Scheduled mode.  I intended to publish it at 3 p.m. on Monday.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/10/dear-randy-are-us-census-records.html

Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver

Disclosure:  I have no material interest in DC Thomson Family History or any of its subsidiaries.  I have received no gifts from them other than a sponsored meal or two.  I have a paid annual subscription to FindMyPast.com and a free subscription to FindMyPast.co.uk.

1 comment:

Tara said...

Very nice of you to take the time to break it down for me by pointing out the advantages/disadvantages. I really like to look 10 pages forwards and backwards from the census page where I find my ancestors to do cluster genealogy. Hopefully the partnership between findmypast.com and familysearch.org would make page by page search a reality. Glad to know that findmypast.com is cheaper than ancestry.com which is a definite plus for me. Thanks and take care!