Why is there no 1890 census guide?

The 1890 population schedules were destroyed after a 1921 fire; only fragments survive. Between 1880 and 1900 use state censuses, city directories and the 1890 veterans schedule.

What do ditto marks mean on a census?

The same as the line above. Enumerators wrote the surname, the birthplace or the street once and dittoed it (", „, do) down the family. Expand them when you transcribe, or a sort by column will lose the family.

How accurate are census ages?

Within a few years, usually. Whoever answered the door gave them from memory, and the same person can age eight or twelve years between censuses. Treat each one as an estimate and look for a birth or baptism record.

Can the app read a whole census page?

Yes. Photograph the page, choose the census year as the record form, and each line comes back as a row with the columns on these pages, next to a verbatim transcript, ready to export as CSV.

Record columns

How to read old census handwriting: what every column holds

A census page, a passenger manifest or a parish register is a ruled form, and the hardest part of reading one is rarely the handwriting alone — it is knowing what each column was asking, which abbreviations the clerk was allowed, and which tick, dash or ditto mark means what. These guides list the columns of each form in order, explain the codes, and point out where the handwriting usually goes wrong. The same column lists live inside Cursive Lens, where a photographed page comes back as rows you can export as a CSV.

United States federal census, by decade

1850 census

12 columns · Enslaved people are on a separate slave schedule, by owner, age, sex and colour, without names.

1860 census

13 columns · Personal estate in the South includes the value of enslaved people; the slave schedule itself is separate and nameless.

1870 census

18 columns · The first census to list formerly enslaved people by name; surnames were often newly chosen and may differ from later censuses.

1880 census

20 columns · Relationship to head is written out: Wife, Son, Dau, Mother, Boarder, Servant. "Dau" and "Son" with a flourish are easy to swap.

1900 census

30 columns · Birth month and year: check them against the age column; when they disagree, the year is usually the more carefully given.

1910 census

30 columns · Marital status: M1 first marriage, M2 second or later; S, Wd, D. A woman shown M2 with few years married is a remarriage worth chasing.

1920 census

28 columns · Birthplace follows post-war borders; enumerators were told to write the province for the former Austria-Hungary, Germany, Russia and Turkey, and many did ("Galicia", "Posen", "Bohemia").

1930 census

30 columns · Age at first marriage: current age minus this is the number of years since the first wedding, whatever the present marriage.

1940 census

30 columns · Residence in 1935: "Same house", "Same place" (same town), or city, county and state; R marks a rural place.

1950 census

18 columns · Marital status: Mar, Nev (never married), Wd, D, Sep.

No 1890: the schedules burned. 1900 is the only decade with birth month and year; 1880 the first with relationship to head; 1940 the first with education and income.

Which columns each census asked

A tick means the column is on that decade's schedule. Tap a year for the full list in order.
Column	1850	1860	1870	1880	1900	1910	1920	1930	1940	1950
Name	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Age	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Sex	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Color	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Occupation	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Birthplace	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Relationship to head				✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Marital status				✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Father's birthplace				✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Birth month					✓
Year of immigration					✓	✓	✓	✓
Naturalization					✓	✓		✓
Mother tongue							✓	✓
Industry						✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Home owned or rented					✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Highest grade completed									✓
Income in 1939									✓

Abbreviations you will meet on every form

do / " / „ — ditto — the same as the line above
Hd — head of household
Wf — wife
Dau — daughter
S-in-L — son-in-law
Bdr — boarder
Svt — servant
Na / Pa / Al — naturalized / first papers / alien
O / R — home owned / rented
F / M — free of mortgage / mortgaged
W / B / Mu — white / black / mulatto in the color column
S / M / W / D — single / married / widowed / divorced
x, / , 1 — a tick in a yes/no column
2/12 — two months old
Pa, O, Va, Ind, Ky — state abbreviations in the birthplace column

Questions

Why is there no 1890 census guide?: The 1890 population schedules were destroyed after a 1921 fire; only fragments survive. Between 1880 and 1900 use state censuses, city directories and the 1890 veterans schedule.
What do ditto marks mean on a census?: The same as the line above. Enumerators wrote the surname, the birthplace or the street once and dittoed it (", „, do) down the family. Expand them when you transcribe, or a sort by column will lose the family.
How accurate are census ages?: Within a few years, usually. Whoever answered the door gave them from memory, and the same person can age eight or twelve years between censuses. Treat each one as an estimate and look for a birth or baptism record.
Can the app read a whole census page?: Yes. Photograph the page, choose the census year as the record form, and each line comes back as a row with the columns on these pages, next to a verbatim transcript, ready to export as CSV.