I’m trying to find genealogy information. There are zillions of websites that say they have access to ‘free’ US Census information. Even though several of these websites with Eagles on them and other “official” looking icons, none of them end in .gov.
Why isn’t this info available via government website for free? (or if it is, what is the website?)
How do these companies get access?
Do they get their own copy of the database, or are they able to just tap into the govt db?
These might work: http://1930census.archives.gov/ and regular census.gov. The problem is the 1930 census site doesn’t have the information digitized:
Sites like Ancestry.com have full versions of the records online. I access them for free through my local library. Census data is published in full about 70 years after it is collected. Data from the 1930 census is available now, and the 1940 info will be released in April 2012.
I too use my library to access the census’. It’s available online through a program called Heritage Quest, I think.
One thing I found about government access is a lot of this “free” information is actually charged for if you get it online.
As another poster pointed out, some isn’t put into a database, so it’s free if you go to the courthouse or where they keep the records but otherwise it costs.
I know some states sell their databases. It’s free to look if you go in person but if you want the database of the info you have to pay for it.
The quality of the database depends on the search engine. I know one guy who took the FCC database for TV stations and put it in his own website and his database is so and quick and easily searchable.
The exact same info is in the FCC’s database and it’s free but the search is ackward and takes a long time
Depending on the location and year, you have a decent chance of finding a free online census transcription (or at least an index) on the various genweb sites.
For example, http://vagenweb.org/ is the Virginia GenWeb site, which contains links to separate sites for each county. Keep in mind that county boundaries have changed frequently over the years. If Town A was in County B in 1820 but is now in County C, the records from 1820 would still be kept under County B.
You’ll also find a whole lot more than just the census on those sites. The census is really just the backbone when it comes to genealogy.
To echo those who directed you to your local library–
Many libraries have Heritage Quest. It’s fine as far as it goes.
The best is Ancestry. They spent the money. They gots the goods.
I’m lucky in that my local (Akron OH) library subscribes to Ancestry. But, I have to go there to access the info. I can get Heritage Quest remotely, at home, with my library card.
I just reactivated an account with Ancestry that I didn’t remember I had.
One word for them: WOW!
I’m pulling up all sorts of related information. I’m amazed at all the misspellings I’ve found so far.
Access to the census docs are free, but what the commercial sites have done is OCR the pages and create a searchable database. Frankly, the raw pages are relatively useless otherwise.
The best resource I’ve found is http://us-census.org/
Keep in mind it’s the census transcribed by volunteers – which means that not every county for every year is available yet. However, it’s a wonderful resource and the transcripts and the forum (where you can request look-ups) is free and easy to use.
Have you being paying for it all this time ?
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) sells microfilm copies of all existing U.S. Census schedules from 1790 through 1930 (almost all of 1890 was destroyed by a fire in 1921). The microfilms are published 72 years after the census date, the population schedules of the 1930 Census will be published on April 1, 2012.
Websites like Ancestry and Heritage Quest buy those microfilms. However, they do not rely on OCR scans to index the schedules. The handwriting is just too varied and unamenable to OCR. Instead, the indexing is contracted out to firms that do it the old-fashioned way — workers look at the microfilms, interpret the handwriting, and type the data into a database. As I understand it, the labor is contracted mostly in southeast Asia.
No. Although I am for a short while now.
On an unrelated note a colleague/friend of mine paid the gas bill of one of the housekeeping crew of the building we worked at for well over a year. He figures he left his checkbook there one time, and found out way after the fact that he’d been paying this person’s gas bill by auto checking account deduction.