Daily AncestorThe 1820 U.S. Census
The 1820 census, dated August 7, 1820, adds counts of unnaturalized foreigners, of workers in farming, trade, and manufacturing, and of free people of color by age.
The fourth census began on Monday, August 7, 1820. It still names only the head of household, but it asks more about the people in the house than any census before it.
Enslaved people and free people of color are now counted by sex in four age groups. New columns count foreigners not naturalized and the number of people working in agriculture, commerce, or manufactures.
The questions, column by column
| Name of head of family | The only person named. |
|---|---|
| Free white males and females in five age groups | The same groups used in 1800 and 1810. |
| Free white males 16 to 18 | An extra column. These young men are also counted in the 16 to 25 group, so do not count them twice. |
| Foreigners not naturalized | A number per household, without saying which person. A clue to look for immigration and naturalization records. |
| Persons engaged in agriculture, commerce, manufactures | Counts working people only, not whole families. |
| Slaves and free colored persons, by sex: under 14, 14 to 25, 26 to 44, 45 and up | Ages in groups, with no names. |
| All other persons, except Indians not taxed | Anyone not covered by the columns above. |
New this census
- Columns for foreigners not naturalized and for three kinds of work.
- Age and sex groups for enslaved people and free people of color.
- A separate manufacturing schedule.
Watch out for
- The 16 to 18, foreigner, and work columns are not added into the household total. Everyone in them is already counted elsewhere.
- In the early 1900s pages were unbound and rebound, so in some places, such as Suffolk County, New York, the top of a filmed page is one town and the bottom is another.
- Column headings often appear only on the first page of an assistant's district.
- Lost schedules include Arkansas Territory, Missouri Territory, all of New Jersey, and some counties or towns in Georgia, Indiana, Maine, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, and Tennessee.
Other schedules
- Manufacturing schedules survive and give the maker, product, money invested, raw materials, workers, and machinery.
Where to see it
- Microfilm M33 (142 rolls). FamilySearch (free with an account) and Ancestry (free on computers at National Archives facilities) both index it and show the images.
- Nine Virginia pages were missed when the film was made. The names on them were published in The Virginia Genealogist in 1974.