What happened to the 1890 census?

The population schedules were damaged in a 1921 fire at the Commerce Building and the remains were destroyed in the 1930s. A few fragments survive. Between 1880 and 1900 use state censuses, city directories and the 1890 veterans schedule.

What does "keeping house" mean in the occupation column?

The enumerator's term for a woman running her own household. "At home" is used for adult daughters and others without paid work.

Record columns

Reading the 1880 US census, column by column

1880 is the census genealogists wish every decade were: for the first time the enumerator wrote each person's relationship to the head of household, their marital status, and where their father and mother were born. The page is wide — twenty columns — and the relationship and birthplace words are where the handwriting matters.

Date: June 1, 1880
Columns: 20
Handwriting: Spencerian in most districts, with enumerators writing quickly across a wide sheet; words cramped at the right edge are the hardest.

The columns in order

The 20 columns of the 1880 US census in the order they are printed, and what the clerk wrote in each.
#	Column	What it holds
1	Street and house no.	Street name and number in cities; blank in the country.
2	Dwelling no.	The enumerator's running count of houses visited, not a street number. Several families can share a dwelling.
3	Family no.	Running count of households. A boarder or servant is listed within the family that housed them.
4	Name	Surname first, then given name; the surname is often written once and dittoed for the rest of the family. Spelled as the enumerator heard it.
5	Color	W white, B black, Mu mulatto; from 1870 also Ch Chinese, In Indian; later Jp, Fil, Hin, Kor. Written as the enumerator judged, not as the person said.
6	Sex	M or F.
7	Age	Age at last birthday, as given by whoever answered the door. Infants in fractions ("2/12" is two months). Treat every age as within five years.
8	Month born if within year	Month of birth for a child under one year old, written as the month name or number.
9	Relationship to head	Head, Wife, Son, Dau (daughter), Mother, Father, Sis, Bro, Boarder, Lodger, Servant, Hired man, Son-in-law, Grandson, Adopted dau, Partner, Inmate.
10	Marital status	S single, M married, W widowed, D divorced; 1910 adds M1 first marriage, M2 second or later; 1950 writes Mar, Nev (never married), Wd, D, Sep.
11	Married within year	A tick if married in the twelve months before census day.
12	Occupation	As stated; "keeping house", "at home", "farm laborer", "none". Children "at school". A blank is a blank, not "none".
13	Months unemployed	Months out of work in the census year.
14	Sick or disabled	The illness or disability written out: "consumption", "rheumatism", "blind".
15	Attended school	A tick or the number of months if the person attended school in the past year.
16	Cannot read	A tick for a person over 10 who could not read.
17	Cannot write	A tick for a person over 10 who could not write.
18	Birthplace	A state or a country, as the enumerator wrote it: "Ohio", "Ireland", "Prussia", "Bohemia". Pre-1900 abbreviations are frequent (Pa, O, Va, Ind).
19	Father's birthplace	State or country of the father; the same abbreviations as the birthplace column.
20	Mother's birthplace	State or country of the mother.

What to watch for on this form

Relationship to head is written out: Wife, Son, Dau, Mother, Boarder, Servant. "Dau" and "Son" with a flourish are easy to swap.
Marital status is a tick under one of four narrow columns (single, married, widowed, divorced) — count from the left of the group.
Parents' birthplaces are states or countries and are often dittoed down the whole family — a dittoed "Ireland" under a child born in Ohio is the parent's birthplace, correctly.
The 1890 schedules were almost entirely destroyed by fire and water in 1921, so 1880 is followed by 1900.

Abbreviations and marks

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

Rows to CSV

Type one person per line with cells separated by a tab or a |, in the column order above. Blank cells may be left empty; write [illegible] where you cannot read. The CSV is built by the same code the app uses for its export.

Rows

Questions

What happened to the 1890 census?: The population schedules were damaged in a 1921 fire at the Commerce Building and the remains were destroyed in the 1930s. A few fragments survive. Between 1880 and 1900 use state censuses, city directories and the 1890 veterans schedule.
What does "keeping house" mean in the occupation column?: The enumerator's term for a woman running her own household. "At home" is used for adult daughters and others without paid work.

About this page

Column lists follow the printed schedule or register form; descriptions are in our own words from the National Archives' census instructions to enumerators, the FamilySearch Research Wiki and the usual parish-register handbooks. This is the same column list Cursive Lens reads the page against; a test in the app fails if the two ever disagree. Last reviewed 2026-10-17.