..One of my OASIS students commented this week that "it is so confusing to use the
FamilySearch Record Search - some years they have images and some years they have only index entries."
My guess is that some of my readers have the same complaint. Let's see what the
FamilySearch Record Search site, and by extension the
FamilySearch Beta site, offers in the way of U.S. Census Records (population schedules):
1) 1850 U.S. Census - 100% complete:* Complete set of images on
FamilySearch Beta site
* Every name indexed - index fields: First Name, Last Name, Census Place (Ward, Town/City, County, State), Age, Birthplace, Gender
* Source information:
GSU Microfilm Number, no NARA Film Number/Roll, no Page Number
2) 1860 U.S. Census - 100% complete:* No images on
FamilySearch site. Link from index to
http://www.footnote.com/ (user must have Footnote subscription to access images)
* Every name indexed - index fields: First Name, Last Name, Census Place (Ward, Town/City, County, State), Age, Birthplace, Gender
* Source information:
GSU Microfilm Number, NARA Microfilm Series M653, No Roll Number, Page Number
3) 1870 U.S. Census - 100% Complete:* Images on
FamilySearch Record Search and
FamilySearch Beta sites.
* Every name indexed - First Name, Last Name, Gender, Age, Color, Birthplace, Residence (State)
* Source information: none provided
4) 1880 U.S. Census - 100% complete:* No images on
FamilySearch Record Search site or
FamilySearch Beta site
* Every name indexed - First Name, Last Name, Residence (Town/City, County, State), Age, Birthplace, Relationship to Head, Race or Color, Gender, Ethnicity, Marital Status, Age, Occupation, Spouse Name*, Spouse Birthplace*, Father's Name*, Father's Birthplace*, Mother's Name*, Mother's Birthplace*
* Source Information: NARA Microfilm Series T9, Roll Number,
GSU Film Number, Page Number
4) 1900 U.S. Census - 100% complete:* Complete set of images on
FamilySearch RecordSearch and
FamilySearch Beta sites
* Every name indexed - index fields: First Name, Last Name, Residence (Town/City, County, State), Birth Date, Birth Place, Relationship to Head, Spouse Name*, Spouse Birthplace*, Father Name*, Father's Birthplace*, Mother's Name*, Mother's Birthplace*, Race or Color, Head of Household Name, Gender, Marital Status, Number of Years Married*, Mother Has How Many Children*, Number of Living Children*, Immigration Year*
* Source Information: No NARA Film Number, No Roll Number,
GSU Film Number, Enumeration District, Sheet Number
5) 1910 US Census - 40% completed as of today: records for Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, Nevada, and Texas.
* No images on
FamilySearch sites
* Every name indexed - index fields: First Name, Last Name, Birthplace, Relationship to Head, Residence, Marital Status, Race, Gender, Immigration Year, Father's Birthplace, Mother's Birthplace
* Source Information: No NARA Film Number, No Roll Number, No
GSU Film Number, No Enumeration District, Page Number
6) 1920 US Census - 98% Complete as of today* No images on
FamilySearch sites
* Every name indexed - index fields: First Name, Last Name, Residence (Ward, Town/City, County, State), Age, Birthplace, Relationship to Head, Gender, Race, Marital Status
* Source information:
GSU Film Number, No NARA Film Number, Sheet Number
As my student noted, the information available is really inconsistent from census year to census year.
Wasn't there any oversight of the indexing of the U.S. census records? There should be year-to-year consistency in:
* Residence format (Ward, City/Town, County, State)
* Relationship, Gender, Race/Color and Marital Information Provided
* NARA Microfilm Number and Roll Number
*
GSU Film Number
* Enumeration District and Page Number
As these census records are constituted at this time, they are very frustrating and difficult to use.
When there are no census page images available (in 1860, 1880, 1910, 1920), a family structure cannot be determined without refining the search to include a residence, and then the user has to search one person at a time. Finding persons with a different surname in a family is nearly impossible to do.
While compiling this list, I noticed that the 1850 and 1860 images are not available on the
FamilySearch Record Search site. A notice comes up on the Record Search site saying to go to the Beta site and a link is provided.
The 1850 images are not available yet on the
FamilySearch Beta site. Are
datasets being migrated from the Record Search site to the Beta site? That will create even more confusion! Hopefully, the migration will be conducted in an orderly fashion. It would help if the user in Record Search was told that the images had been migrated to the Beta site and a link provided. When the user goes to the Beta site, the search fields must be re-entered.
The good news:
* It's all free;
* There are census page images for 1850, 1870 and 1900 only;
* There are every-name indexes for 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, and 1900, 1910, 1920.
The not-so-good news:
* There are no images for 1880, 1910 and 1920, and a user must have a Footnote subscription to see 1860 images;
* The indexed fields are inconsistent year to year;
* The user cannot see whole families in census years without images
* Source information is non-existent for 1870, and is incomplete in all years but 1880
It's probably too late to fix many of these problems. I'm surprised that nobody else has complained about them before (perhaps others have and I missed them? If so, who?). I know that it's "Pilot" and then "Beta" sites - will they be in better shape when the final "new"
FamilySearch.org is up and running? I hope so!