Thursday, December 10, 2015

Good News! FamilySearch Has Added Record Images to Some U.S. Census Collections

For several years now, FamilySearch has had the United States Census records from 1790 to 1940 indexed, but only the 1850, 1870, 1900 and 1940 census records had record images attached.  For the other years, the user had to go to a partner site to see the record images - 1790-1840, 1880, 1910-1930 on Ancestry, 1860 on Fold3.

That changed recently, at least for the 1930 U.S. Census images.  Now the record images are available on FamilySearch, as of 10 December 2015.

I searched for my father in the 1930 U.S. Census, and it found him easily:


There is now a "Preview" arrow on the left of the person's name, and a "Details" and an "Image" icon on the right side of the screen above.  I think the "Preview" arrow is a new feature.

I clicked "Preview" and the record summary (the "Detail") appeared below the search result, along with a thumbnail of the record image (the "Image") (two screens below):


The "Details" include the indexed information for the person, the listing of household members with role, gender, age and birthplace, the image thumbnail and extracted census information on the right side, and the source citation at the bottom of the screen above.

I clicked on the "View the original document" link below the thumbnail image, and the census record appeared.  I zoomed in and dragged and dropped until my family was shown:


The "Image Index" appears at the bottom of the screen above.  I could suppress the index tab by clicking on the "Image Index" down arrow.

I could see the census page information, and the source citation, by clicking on the "Information" tab, showing:


This is an advance, I think, that provides all the information that users need with a minimum of clicks and page loads.

On the second screen above, there is a blue "Attach to Family Tree."  I clicked that and the source citation was added to the person profile in the Family Tree without my identifying the person - the system guessed right, I think, based on the available information.

What about the other census years?  Here's what I found today:

*  1790 U.S. Census - same as above (last updated 1 June 2015)

*  1800 U.S. Census - same as above (last updated 11 June 2015)

*  1810 U.S. Census - same as above (last updated 1 December 2015)

*  1820 U.S. Census - same as above (last updated 16 July 2015)

*  1830 U.S. Census - same as above (last updated 20 August 2015)

*  1840 U.S. Census - same as above (last updated 25 August 2015)

*  1850 U.S. Census - same as above (last updated 1 July 2014)

*  1860 U.S. Census - same as above, but images accessible on Fold3.com (last updated 27 January 2014)

*  1870 U.S. Census - same as above (last updated 20 June 2014)

*  1880 U.S. Census - same as above, but images available on Ancestry.com (last updated 20 September 2012)

*  1890 U.S. Census (partial) - same as above (last updated 21 August 2015)

*  1900 U.S. Census - same as above (last updated 5 August 2014)

*  1910 U.S. Census - same as above (last updated 25 November 2015)

*  1920 U.S. Census - same as above (last updated 14 July 2014)

*  1930 U.S. Census - same as above (last updated 10 December 2015)

*  1940 U.S. Census - same as above (last updated 16 October 2015)

So only the 1860 and 1880 U.S. Census record images are not available for free at FamilySearch.org. That is a big improvement over the situation  just six months ago.  Hopefully, the 1860 and 1880 U.S. Census record images will be available for free on FamilySearch in the near future.


Copyright (c) 2015, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.


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