Ancestry.com: Free Access to US Census Records (1790-1940)

Ancestry.com: Free Access to US Census Records (1790-1940)

Discover where your ancestors came from, how they lived, what they fought for and
so much more in 150 years of U.S. Census records spanning 1790-1940. Enter
details about one of your ancestors in the search box and start searching for FREE.

http://www.ancestry.com/census?cj=1&sid=1vlD3Di0qoD1D2&netid=cj&...

*Ends September 3rd at midnight ET

belarus94 op

These are actually more useful and interesting than it might sound.

Just note that you need some info on your grandparents, or so, to get back to when the records have been made available. (They don't release newer info for privacy reasons, it covers too many living people.)

ancestory.com is one of the worst spammers i have ever encountered. despite repeatedly unsubscribing from their emails, they keep spamming me.

lemonhead said:   I've never had any luck with the "free stuff" in ancestry - maybe i just don't know how to use it - but I'm sure my family is in there and I'm super curious - so I may have to revisit it this week - any tips?
and i guess a stranger question - will this help me populate my "tree" and then can I add this info somewhere in my "tree" and since it's free now, does that mean that once the promo is over, I won't be able to see it any further unless i subscribe?

My efforts today came to the usual halt you run into at about two jumps whether or not there is a free offer in progress. In other words, free access to census records is that and only that.

The site is highly recommended by pretty much everyone who knows how to use it. While it may have the occasional glitch, I have never experienced one. Odds are just as likely it's your computer or internet connection.

lemonhead said:   I've never had any luck with the "free stuff" in ancestry - maybe i just don't know how to use it - but I'm sure my family is in there and I'm super curious - so I may have to revisit it this week - any tips?Honestly the biggest tip is to talk to any relatives. Often they know a lot, and often it's reliable. And in any case, get the history, stories, and photos while you still can - while they are still alive.

As far as census data - read the info on the census form about where the people (including children) were born, and search in those other states. So if your ancestor is in Missouri and they were born in New York and a child was born in Ohio, search for them in those other states at the appropriate time.

Also, try alternate spellings of names.

Search on RootsWeb too, often you can find info that will guide you to census or other records to back it up.

Google is easy to overlook. You of course need to use a well written search to get good results, but I've turned up a lot of stuff that way.

and i guess a stranger question - will this help me populate my "tree" and then can I add this info somewhere in my "tree" and since it's free now, does that mean that once the promo is over, I won't be able to see it any further unless i subscribe?Not at all a strange question, if you put the work in you want to build on it later. Your account is permanent, what you lose is access to the images of the records. So any work you did on the tree or items you save to your "shoebox" are still there (a link, not a copy of the image). It's of limited use, but you don't lose it. If you want copies of the census images, use the "Save to your computer" function.

My efforts today came to the usual halt you run into at about two jumps whether or not there is a free offer in progress. In other words, free access to census records is that and only that.I found an amazing amount of info using census records only, over several generations. A lot probably depends on whether you know where to look (which state) and whether your ancestors were in the US - it gets a lot harder to look overseas. Also, the quality of the data itself has a lot of issues - misspellings of first and last names are a big one. It's not ancestry's fault that the census taker mis-spelled the names, in fact they sometimes suggest alternative spellings. But often you have to try alternate spellings yourself.

Frankly the census records are the bulk of the usefullness. A lot of the other stuff - draft cards, service records - is useful and adds to the story, but is only of incremental value.

It takes time, though. If anyone is expecting it to spit out a complete family tree, they have the wrong expectations. You have to be willing to sift through dozens of search results to find the ones that actually apply to your family. And overall the process of getting something reliable is usually something people work on over a period of years.

Pretty much all the negative comments in this thread reflect unrealistic expectations or just cluelessness.

not on-topic of old lists; but I need to find individual's IMMIGRATION STATUS.

Naturalization info is public. But USCIS takes over 3 months to return FOIA query... SAVE database lists immigration status, but I don't know who'd be an authorized user(?) There were 76,000 newly naturalized applicants in NY state last year; but how do I find/search lists? I have full name (unique, no namesakes), DOB, SSN, A#. He was eligible to apply for US Citizenship 2011-2012, in NYC.

Any idea: how to obtain such info?

So any clue of 2011-2012 lists?