Chapter 4 · Life in America · Census records
The federal census places your family every ten years and gives two facts that steer the rest of the search: the year of immigration and the naturalization status. What it will not give is the village.
What the census tells you
- Year of immigration, 1900 to 1930, which narrows the manifest search
- Naturalization status: “Al” for alien, “Pa” for first papers filed, “Na” for naturalized
- Mother tongue or language spoken, 1910 to 1930, separating Polish speakers from German or Russian neighbours
- Household members, boarders and neighbours, who were often relatives or people from the same village
Why the birthplace says Russia, Austria or Germany
Between 1795 and 1918 there was no Polish state, so enumerators recorded the empire. From 1920 many Poles are listed as born in “Poland”, sometimes with the former empire added. Neither answer names the village. The census confirms the region; other records supply the parish.
State censuses
Several states took their own censuses between the federal ones. New York counted its population in 1905, 1915 and 1925, and New Jersey, Wisconsin, Minnesota and others did the same in some years. They fill the gap left by the 1890 federal census, which was almost entirely destroyed by fire.
The 1950 census
Released in 2022, the 1950 census is the most recent available. It catches the last of the immigrant generation alongside their American-born children and grandchildren, useful for connecting the family to living relatives.
How we can help
Census research is the starting point of Ancestral Village Identification and Immigration & Passenger Records, used to date the arrival and find the naturalization.
Keep reading
Ellis Island and Castle Garden
The American documents that name a Polish village
The partitions of Poland: why the census says Russia, Prussia or Austria