I would like to see how my husband's family appears on the 1880 census. Would some kind person with access check that for me? The parents names are Isidor and Jeannette Alexander, with four sons, Jacques, Gaston, Edward and Maurice. Is there any information aside from their names? Thank you in advance. Ellen Alexander

Hi Ellen, Everyone has free access to a name search of the 1880, 1900, and 1910 Census thanks to the Allen County Library and the Internet Archive. The Library acquired the Soundex name indices from the 1880-1930 Census reels from the US National Archive and are in the process of having them placed online at the Internet Archive. 1920 and 1930 are in progress, 1880 - 1910 are done. Unfortunately, both NY and NJ appear to be missing from the 1910 rolls. I've created finding guides to help you find the reel you want and then bring it up. My guides are at http://Guides.DonsList.net Click on 1880 in the census links and you'll see a list of states in the upper left frame. Scroll down to New York and click on Index. You'll see a list of index reels for New York state in the upper right frame. You'll need the soundex code for the name you want, in this case, Alexander. There are links right next to the census links on my guides page to pages explaining the system and also to a soundex calculator which will generate the codes you request. For Alexander, the code is A425 . Scroll down in the list of soundex reels to the reel for that code. It's reel 209x, the third one on the list. Click on that link and the page on the Internet Archive for that reel will open in a new tab or window. To the left are links which allow you to download the entire reel or browse it. I see one Isador Alexander in New York only and the other names in the family do not match those you've mentioned. But you might want to take a look, and perhaps check other states too. If you find a soundex card for the family you want, note that it includes the ED, sheet number, and line number for the full census listing. You can find the correct reel using my guides again. For the Isidor I found the here are the listings: ED 209, Sheet 28, Line 37. Click on "New York" "Census" in the list of states in the left frame and a list of reels with full census images will appear in the upper right frame. Scroll down to the one for the municipality and ED that you want and click on the link there. Again, a tab or window will appear with the correct page from the Internet Archive for that reel. Of course the process is a more complex than simply typing in the name and getting back a list. This is how it was originally done from hand generated indices, done during the depression under the WPA (Works Projects Administration). There are advantages to the this approach though. It's free, and it's much less vulnerable to errors in transcription and spelling than the computerized searches are. I'll be placing guides for the 1920 and 1930 soundex cards on the site as the digitization is completed, hopefully by the end of the summer. And you will see on that page guides for large series covering the Revolution, War of 1812, Civil War, shipping manifests, and others. The guides along with the actual materials placed online on the Internet Archive provide free and practical access to 30,000+ microfilm reels with 30,000,000+ total pages. It's a wonderful and growing resource. Don Don Krieger - Pittsburgh, PA http://www.DonsList.Net - Always fast. Always free. -----Original Message----- From: nyc-roots-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:nyc-roots-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Ln769eksa Sent: Friday, July 15, 2011 10:48 PM To: NYC-ROOTS-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [NYC-ROOTS] 1880 Census Information Help I would like to see how my husband's family appears on the 1880 census. Would some kind person with access check that for me? The parents names are Isidor and Jeannette Alexander, with four sons, Jacques, Gaston, Edward and Maurice. Is there any information aside from their names? Thank you in advance. Ellen Alexander ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to NYC-ROOTS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message