D.C. destroyed nearly all of the 1890 census. More than 20 million records have been identified for inclusion in the census substitute and additions will be made regularly as records become available for posting.
Few records shed as much light on individuals, families and communities as census records.
The project goes far beyond trying to reconstruct a historically-significant set of documents. We are determined to provide millions of people a powerful resource for discovering information that has long been out of reach. A large portion of the census substitute consists of city directories, which list the head of household and other working adults at a particular residence. The reconstruction will reference city directories from multiple years, making it possible to determine if a person or family moved to a different location during the years referenced.