New online access to rare 1810 US federal census
Searchable Records are now available for the only surviving copy of the 1810 federal census for Salem, Massachusetts
American Ancestors/new England Historic Genealogical Society has announced a new database: Salem, MA: United States 1810 Census, the result of a partnership between the Phillips Library at the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) and American Ancestors/nehgs after the recent discovery that the Phillips Library had the only surviving copy of the 1810 Federal Census for Salem, Massachusetts.
There is now is a searchable database of the original, approximately 100 handwritten pages, meaning that researchers don’t have to read each page in its entirety to locate a name. Anyone researching ancestors who lived in Salem in 1810 can use the database to locate the tallied families. The database contains the full pages of the 1810 Federal Census for Salem, Massachusetts, with more than 2,200 records and searchable names (by first and last name).
According to American Ancestors, there are likely dozens, if not hundreds, more ‘missing’ census records across the US that are stored in courthouse archives, historical societies, libraries, etc., which staff don’t realize they have in their possession. They hope that this case study will encourage other organisations to take a closer look and see if they find census documents in their repositories so that they might become accessible to all.
The database is available to all American Ancestors members, including free Guest Members. Find out more at https://www.americanancestors. org/join