There are few road blocks so confounding as the mostly destroyed 1890 US Federal Census. While there are 1890 Census fragments, it really is very minimal what survived the fire.
This is the full list of surviving fragments:
- Alabama – Perry County
- District of Columbia – Q, S, 13th, 14th, RQ, Corcoran, 15th, SE and Roggs streets and Johnson Avenue
- Georgia – Muscogee County
- Illinois – McDonough County: Mound Township
- Minnesota – Wright County: Rockford
- New Jersey – Hudson County: Jersey City
- New York – Westchester County: Eastchester, Suffolk County: Brookhaven Township
- North Carolina – Gaston County: South Point Township & Ricer Bend Township, Cleveland County: Township No. 2
- Ohio – Hamilton County: Cincinnati, Clinton County: Wayne Township
- South Dakota – Union County: Jefferson Township
- Texas – Ellis County: S.P. no. 6, Mountain Peak & Ovila Precinct, Hood County: Precinct no. 5, Rusk County: Precinct no. 6 & J.P. no. 7, Trinity County: Trinity Town and Precinct no. 2, Kaufman County: Kaufman.
Link to the 1890 Census fragments at FamilySearch.
If you’d like to read more about the January 10, 1921 fire at the US Department of Commerce building click here.
Alternative Resources
Knowing what a difficult road block the loss of this census can be we’ve compiled a list of alternative resources.
- City Directories are often published yearly and can be a great ancestor hunting resource.
- Voter Registers are also very helpful and published regularly in some states. California’s for instance sometimes provides distinguishing marks, so you may learn interesting information like the loss of an eye or a particularly large scar.
- State Census Collections
- Colorado State Census 1885
- Florida State Census 1885
- Iowa State Census 1885
- Kansas State Census1885
- Minnesota State Census 1885
- Nebraska State Census 1885
- New Jersey State Census 1885
- Rhode Island State Census 1885
- Wisconsin State Census 1885
- Oklahoma Territorial Census 1890
- New York State Census 1892
- Michigan State Census 1894
- Iowa State Census 1895
- Kansas State Census 1895
- Minnesota State Census 1895
- New Jersey State Census 1895
- Wisconsin State Census 1895
- Newspapers where available can be an excellent substitute. We recommend anyone with ancestors in California utilize the California Digital Newspaper Database.
- The University of New Mexico also has a great repository of local newspapers, some in English some in Spanish, that can be used to help fill in the gap.
The lesson here is that there are usually several alternative ways to locate those pesky missing relatives.