Czechia Determining a Place of Origin: Difference between revisions

United States Federal Census records provide the basic framework of the family. The ancestor should be located in every census taken while he lived in the United States. All censuses are available online at www.ancestry.com with indexes and images. Some years are also available at www.heritagequestonline.com. However, if the ancestor cannot be found using “exact search”, it may be necessary to search other indexes or even the census film for the specific locality ‘by hand’. Since Ancestry.com uses a lot of non-English speakers to index records, users need to be aware of letter combinations that could easily be misinterpreted. Try truncated searches using three or more letters and an asterisk for a “wild card”.   

Beginning with the 1850 Census, all household members are named, province or country of birth is listed. 1860 and 1870 Census often list "province" rather than the country. Book and film/fiche indexes exist for most of these censuses.

Soundex indexes exist for these U. S. Censuses. They provide clues as to country, province, or even the place of birth. Month and year of birth are listed. The 1880 Soundex Index includes those families with children ten years or younger. The 1900 Census lists the year of immigration to America, also "years married" and “month and year of birth”. The 1900-1930 censuses ask if the immigrant is a U.S. citizen or an alien and for the year of immigration.  

*Check State Censuses wherever they are available! They were usually taken midway between Federal Censuses in years ending with “5”.