Government census records are mandated by the United States Constitution and are required to be taken once every ten years. Members of the US House of Representatives from each state are required to be apportioned according the census findings.

While Field marshals went door to door to record the number of people in each household way back in 1790, it was only in 1902 that the Congress established the Census Bureau as a permanent Federal Agency to maintain government census records. Government census records are essential for deciding how funds for socio-economic programs should be apportioned.

As the US Congress approves all questions asked for including in government census records, critics are vocal about the invasion of privacy. Questions can be about ethnicity as well as indoor plumbing. But the data collected for government census records are meant to formulate federal laws such as the Voting Rights Act.

But despite the hurdles, it was possible to maintain government census records although not every individual in the US could be counted. Several other alternative methods of demographic, social and economic information collection were tried to minimize the privacy intrusion while at the same time provide improved quality of data for government decision making.

For searching government census records the name of your great grand parent and the state he or she resided in is just enough to kick start your census search. Usually researches find it easy to take 1030 as the base year for searching the government census records. They usually work backwards from 1930 for locating their ancestors.

Data from recent censuses are not available after 1930 due to a 72 year restriction on access. National Archives has preserved census records from 1790 to 1930 in microfilms without most of the 1890 government census records as they were destroyed in a department of Commerce fire.

Government census records are imperative for any serious socio-economic research project also as papers and dissertations have to be based on them for gaining credibility. The data in government census records available for search is confined in the period before 1930 till about 1850; include names of family members, their ages at a particular time, sate and country of birth, details about their parents, immigration time, street address, marriage status, occupation, value of their homes and the crops they grew.

But not all the information further back beyond 1850 is available in the government census record, as few details were recorded then. Between 1790 when it all began, to 1840, only the head of household and number of members in each selected group was listed.

Government census records can be searched at the National Archives Building in Washington, DC or at one of the regional centers in Anchorage, Atlanta, and Boston. Chicago, Denver, Fort Worth, Kansas City, New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsfield, MA, San Francisco and Seattle.

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Yes it is true! That is what the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) says. If the government records are laid side by side the pages held by NARA would have to circle the world 57 times. As it is not at all possible to get these mammoth government record holdings digitalized the NARA has made only a very small portion of it available online, mainly for those interested in research.

Otherwise there are tools and methods by which those interested can search. Records are made available by the government to those interested. For online records that the government makes available, they need to check and employ the tools to find out what they want.

In a democracy, it is imperative that government records are made available to every citizen of the US to monitor their government as well as ensure that is government is properly accountable. Policymakers all over the US always face a daunting task of maintaining a precarious balance between the right to information of the public and the right to secrecy of the individual.

Contrary to popular misconceptions about government records, it is not only about records and documents of the US Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence. Government documents carry virtually all information about the citizens from the time they were born, were eligible for a driver’s license, got married, bought a house and filed a suit.

Lots of documents have been created over the years and kept as government records ranging from those living to their parents, grand parents or great grand parents who had become US citizens for the first time or, about them if they had served in any of the two World Wars or the any other war for the United States. It is said that of all the information created by NARA and available as government records, barely 1-3% are considered to have some legal or historical value that were kept forever.

Otherwise, the rest are not available as they are of little value and importance to the public. Government record keeping is like documents and papers you consider worth keeping with you when you move house. Most of them are scrapped while some are carried by you to your new home and also treasured by your children and grandchildren as you presently keep those dating back to your parents, grandparents or some belonging to earlier generations in your family tree.

Researches have myriad interests in looking into government records dating back many years. People after their own roots may want to know about their past generation, something about their family history or some other social thesis of social interest that may go into a book they are writing. Others may require proving military service of a veteran.

To all of them, the NARA makes available records that they have carefully preserved over the years. 

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