The 1790 census instructed the marshals to identify, by age brackets, free white males sixteen years of age or older and those under sixteen. It was designed to determine the country s industrial and military capabilities. A twenty-dollar fine, to be split between the marshals assistants and the government, would be levied against anyone who refused to answer the enumerator s questions. The 1790 census records are useful for identifying the locality to be searched for other types of records for a named individual. Free men of color are listed as heads of household by name.
Slaves appear in age groupings by name of owner.
By combining those age groupings with probate inventories and tax list data, it is sometimes possible to determine names of other family members and the birth order of those individuals. Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States in the Year 1790. Government Printing Office, 1908.