Exploring Pre-1850 Censuses – An Interview With Lindsey Harner

In this episode of the Family Tree Magazine Podcast, Lindsey Harner offers tips for navigating census records before 1850. https://media.blubrry.com/family_tree_magazine/content.blubrry.com/family_tree_magazine/FTM-2024-09.mp3 Feature: Strategies for Using Pre-1850 US Censuses The census is one of those records that serves as the backbone of genealogy. However, not all census records are the same. Have you run into the dreaded “1850 brick wall”? Lindsey Harner is here to help us understand what’s so significant about that year, and how you can use the earlier census records successfully. Read Come to Your Census by Lindsey Harner in the July / August 2024 issue of Family Tree Magazine. Other Pre-1850s Census Resources: FamilySearch Research Wiki National Archives – Census Records Secrets to Find Ancestors in Early US Census Records Don’t stress out about finding ancestors in early, head-of-household-only censuses. These tricks will help you transform those tick marks into ancestral families. Family Tree Magazine /* Embedded-box css */ .embedded-box{ padding: 25px; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5; color: #82878c; background: #fff; border: 1px solid #e5e5e5; box-shadow: 0 1px 1px rgba(0,0,0,.05); overflow: auto; zoom: 1; font-family: -apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,"Segoe UI",Roboto,Oxygen-Sans,Ubuntu,Cantarell,"Helvetica Neue",sans-serif; } .acf-embed-title{ margin: 0 0 15px; font-weight: 600; font-size: 22px; line-height: 1.3; } .acf-embed-description { display: inline-block; } .acf-embed-description img { float: left; max-width: 160px; margin-right: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; } .wp-embed-site-title a{ position: relative; display: inline-block; padding-left: 35px; } .wp-embed-site-title span { color: #82878c; text-decoration: none; font-weight: 600; } .wp-embed-site-icon { position: absolute; top: 50%; left: 0; transform: translateY(-50%); height: 25px; width: 25px; border: 0; padding-bottom: 0px!important; } Get more tips from Lindsey in the online article Secrets to Find Ancestors in Early US Census Records. For more details on census records, see the National Archives landing page for each census, or the FamilySearch Research Wiki’s pages for each state’s census.