TIP #495 - STATE CENSUSES AND SCHOOL CENSUSES I have been asked ever so many times about different types of census. Individuals are looking for the 1790 and 1800 census, state censuses or any off-year censuses. I'm hoping that this short tip might be of help to you. As most of you know, federal and state censuses are not opened up to the general public for many years. The latest federal census to be released was the 1930. State census takers asked different questions than the federal census takers and are a tremendous help. Now for the bad news. Kentucky has never taken a state census. There is also no 1790 and 1800 census in KY and when you see a census book for those years, it is not a real census. It is merely a reconstruction of the tax records for those years which lists only the male head of household, if he owned land and the classification of same along with the acreage, the number of white males over 21, over 16, slaves, horses, carriages, billiards tables and businesses. Although a great help to place your ancestor in a particular area for that year, that's all there is. The other big loss is the burning of the 1890 federal census which I have covered in a previous tip. A lot happened between 1880 and 1900! States that did have state censuses include Colorado (1885), Florida (1885, 1895), Iowa (same), Kansas (same), Nebraska (1885), New Jersey (1885,1895), New Mexico (1885), New York (1892), North Dakota (1885), Rhode Island (1885), South Dakota (1885, 1895), and Wisconsin (same). Out of all of the above, only the following state censuses have been opened to the public: Florida (1935, 1945), Iowa (1925), Kansas (1925), New York (1925), North Dakota (1925), Rhode Island (1925, 1935) and South Dakota (1925, 1935, 1945). The only other census available in Kentucky that does help (outside of the agricultural censuses and disabled censuses discussed in previous tips) is the school census. But, these are difficult to find and were only taken for a few years. The General Assembly required school censuses to be taken in 1888 and into the early 1900's. These may include the name, parents, residence, age and birth dates for those attending a public school. They are only found in the local Board of Education in the town where they lived. If they attended a city school, one would look in the city Board of Education; if they lived in the county, one would check with the county Board of Education. They also might not be open for public viewing! Here in Barren County, I found a large number of these school census records, but they were accidentally filed at the County Clerk's Office. I know that some of the records locally can be viewed, however, I have not gone there to see what can be released. The forms I located showed basically what was listed above: the parent's or guardian's name, the child(ren)'s name, their age, the name of the school and the teacher and the total number of students of each sex. A few school records are available at the Kentucky State Archives, Department of Libraries and Archives, 300 Coffee Tree Road, P O Box 57, Frankfort KY 40602 and the Kentucky Historical Society, P O Box H, Frankfort KY 40602-2109. (c) Copyright 24 June 2004, Sandra K. Gorin, All Rights Reserved Colonel Sandi Gorin SCKY Links: http://www.public.asu.edu/~moore/Gorin.html Sandi's Puzzlers: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~gensoup/gorin/puz.html Gorin Publishing: http://ggpublishing.tripod.com/