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Census records

From the information contained in Janet's family records and the local histories she read, she knew exactly where her great-grandparents, the Flecks, had lived in Oregon from the late 1800s to the early 1900s. With this information, she began exploring census records.

The AJ Fleck House, The Dalles, Oregon J.A. Fleck house, The Dalles, OR

Multnomah County Library subscribes to HeritageQuest Online which has digital copies of the microfilm census records for all states. A link to HeritageQuest can be found on the Library's genealogy collection. The library also has the census records for Oregon and some records for other states on microfilm. The National Archives lends census microfilm through Interlibrary Loan, and also rents census microfilm to individuals. The National Archives Genealogy Page has information about both programs. The individual census records become public records 72 years after they are collected; the 1930 census became available in April, 2002.

The Soundex is an important census aid developed in the 1930s. It helps to resolve the problem of misspelled names. Using the "Soundex" microfilm for Oregon, she looked under F420 (the code for Fleck). Janet learned that John A. Fleck of Wasco County was listed with the residents of E.D. (Enumeration District) 140, on Sheet 2, line 100. Without the Soundex as a guide, she might still be trying to find the census entry -- especially since HeritageQuest lists the family as "FLICK" rather than the correct "Fleck". The census information corrected an error in Janet's records: her great-grandfather arrived in Oregon in 1874 and not 1879 as reported by in the Lockley history. There isn't a Soundex for the 1930 Oregon census .

Related resources

Books

Multnomah County Library has other census resources to explore. Use the library catalog with keywords "census genealogy" to find titles like:

Related Web sites

Sample Census Forms
http://www.ancestry.com/save/charts/census.htm
The forms allow researchers to see the format and column headings for various census years and provide a clean and convenient method for recording important information.
CensusLinks.com
http://censuslinks.com/
This websites records in all fifty states, as well as informative articles on doing census research.
The 1930 Census
http://1930census.archives.gov
The latest information from the National Archives and Records Administation about the 1930 Census.
Winning the Name Game
http://www.familytreemagazine.com/soundex.html
Turn your surname into its corresponding phonetic code known as Soundex.
The Soundex Indexing System
http://www.archives.gov/research_room/genealogy/census/soundex.html
All the rules for creating a Soundex code for a surname.