First Census of the United States - 1790 -Records of the state enumerations 1782 to 1785 - VA The first census of the U. S. (1790) comprised an enumeration of the inhabitants of the present states of Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia. The 1790 census today, however, is not complete.  The schedules were filed in the State Department, but some were burned when the British burned the Capitol at Washington in the War of 1812 --  the returns for the states of Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, Tennessee and Virginia having been destroyed then. For Virginia, every effort was made to secure duplicates and some records were secured from manuscript lists of state enumerations made in the years 1782, 1783, 1784 and 1785. Through the courtesy of the State Librarian and members of the Library, an Act was passed by the Legislature allowing the Census Office to withdraw the lists for purposes of making copies and publishing names in lieu of the Federal Census returns. In response to requests from genealogists, etc. a bill was passed authorizing publication of the names of heads of families in the 1790 census.  As the Federal census schedules of the state of Virginia are missing, the lists of the state enumerations made in 1782, 1783, 1784 and 1785 while not complete, have been substituted. The schedules for 1790 form a unique inheritance for the Nation, since they represent for each of the States concerned, a complete list of the heads of families in the United States at the time of the adoption of the Constitution.  The framers were the statesmen and leaders of thought, but those whose names appear upon the schedules of the First Census were in general the plain citizens who by their conduct in war and peace, made the Constitution possible and by their intelligence and self-restraint put it into successful operation. In Mar 1790, the Union consisted of twelve states -- Rhode Island the last of the original thirteen to enter the Union, being admitted May 29 of the same year.    Vermont, the first addition, was admitted in the following year before the results of the first census were announced.  Maine was a part of Massachusetts, Kentucky was a part of Virginia and the present states of Alabama and Mississippi were parts of Georgia.  The present states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, with part of Minnesota, were known as the Northwest Territory, and the present state of Tennessee, then a part of North Carolina, was soon to be organized as the Southwest Territory. The territory west of the Allegheny Mountains, with the exception of a portion of Kentucky, was unsettled and scarcely penetrated. The boundaries of towns and other minor divisions and even those of counties, were in many cases unknown or not defined at all. Shirley Hornbeck - hornbeck@s-hornbeck.com or hornbeck@lightspeed.net NEW WEB PAGE URL SHORTLY - PLEASE STAY IN TOUCH! My web page: <<http://users.tminet.com/shornbeck>http://users.tminet.com/shornbeck> THIS & THAT GENEALOGY TIPS:     <<http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/5643/tandt.html>http://www.geocities.com /Yosemite/5643/tandt.html>