This is the beginning effort to index the entire 1856 census for Mills County, Iowa. The 1856 census is the only census for Iowa which questioned how many years each person had been a resident in the state of Iowa. Because of this one question, the 1856 Iowa census stands out as one of the most helpful early census records for the genealogist searching for ancestors in Iowa. This census is hard to read in many respects.
Older records are often hard to decipher.
Some of the capital letters are almost indistinguishable, one from another. Many middle initials have been omitted because of difficulty in reading. Misspelling and ink smudges often cause errors in transcribing. Every attempt has been made to check the names, but researchers are advised to look at all possible spellings when using this index. I'm sure there are errors on the part of the enumerator as well as the transcriber.