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"In December 1932, following standard Federal record-keeping procedures, the Chief Clerk of the Bureau of the Census sent the Librarian of Congress a list of papers to be destroyed, including the original 1890 census schedules. The Librarian was asked by the Bureau to identify any records which should be retained for historical purposes, but the Librarian did not accept the census records. Congress authorized destruction of that list of records on February 21, 1933, and the surviving original 1890 census records were destroyed by government order by 1934 or 1935. The other censuses for which almost all information has been lost are the 1800 and 1810 enumerations."
I guess the Librarian felt the damaged records were useless. A shame, since now a lot could be reconstructed.
The census was taken so they'd have an accounting of the population ... strictly a numbers thing. Thankfully, they eventually decided to list everyone in the household. But they didn't take it so we'd have it to do our genealogy 125 years later. Long-term preservation wasn't in the plan, because as with counting anything ... it's obsolete the minute you do it. They just wanted to know how many people there were, and where.
Generally speaking, there possibly were THREE copies of the census made. The census enumerator took the census in a book that could be carried with them as they went house to house. That was transferred to the pages in the format we commonly see as the census. If the states wanted to keep a copy (at their option), another copy from that first copy was made and then sent to the federal government. Apparently, most states didn't keep a copy, and just sent on copy #1. Some did, and exist (probably) in the state's archives. And a very few of some of those initial enumeration books exist. The number of errors discovered among the three are scary ... which helps even more to make the census unreliable.
But a lot of states took their own censuses on the "5" years. They make for a good fill-in for the missing 1890. Tax lists, city directories are just some of the other records that can be useful in filling the gap.
I seem to remember reading years ago that they had multiple copies stored in the ONE place, unlike other census year records that were stored in different locations.
I seem to remember reading years ago that they had multiple copies stored in the ONE place, unlike other census year records that were stored in different locations.
Some areas even did an 1892 census in NY. Hard to find data on it though. NY state had a fire about 1911 in the state archives, so a lot of other things are missing
Link on archival mishaps:
Archival Milestones
"1911 Fire in New York State Capitol destroyed much of New York state's archives"
During the 1976 Meriwether County Courthouse fire, a lady who worked there tossed all the records she could into the safe, locked it, and escaped out a window.
I think of her every time I go there and sit in the vault to look at original records.
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Georgia courthouse fires
