A census is defined as an official enumeration of the people of a nation, state, district, or city, together with the collecting of statistics concerning their property, nativity, age, sex, occupation, etc. Since 1790, the U.S. government has taken a nationwide population count every ten years. Few, if any records reveal as many details about individuals and families as do the U.S. censuses. Census indexes serve as the gateway to original and compiled records by identifying where people lived.
Few sources are as comprehensive or easy to use.
They are the first place most American genealogists begin their research. Census and tax list indexes save time and can lead to much more information. Like other indexes, the AIS Census Index database contains only a portion of what is found in the records to which it refers. It is important that researchers continue on in their research to locate an individual in the census records themselves, as they will contain more information and verify that the index entry was correct. Even if an entry is not located in an index, researchers should still check the census records for the appropriate locality in the event indexers missed the individual.