Pennsylvania Genealogy Brick Wall Strategies
It’s a common Pennsylvania genealogy brick wall: “My ancestors are from PA—but I don’t know where!” Pennsylvania expert Jim Beidler has strategies that may help narrow down the needle-in-a-haystack problem of identifying your ancestor’s home county. Here, we also add...Genealogy Gems Premium Podcast Episode 158
In the new Genealogy Gems Premium Podcast episode 158, get an exclusive Chronicling America tutorial from the manager of this enormous, free historical newspaper website. Also: a loving daughter hears her father answer important questions 35 years after his death;, a...We Dig These Gems! New Genealogy Records Online
Here’s our weekly roundup of new genealogy records online. Do you see anything you should be searching for your ancestors?
Featured: U.S. – SOUTH DAKOTA CENSUS. The 1945 South Dakota state census collection at Ancestry.com has been updated. According to a FamilySearch.org collection description (where it can also be searched for free), “This 1945 South Dakota State Census is an every-name list of the state’s inhabitants as of 1945. The records are handwritten on printed cards and are arranged alphabetically by surname. People enumerated in the census are recorded individually; the census records do not show individuals in family groups.” It’s wonderful to see census records access pushing past that 1940 blackout!
AUSTRALIA VITAL RECORDS. Findmypast.com has updated collections of birth, marriage and death records for Western Australia. Transcripts for all three record sets appear to be taken from original civil registrations, which began in 1841.
SPAIN MUNICIPAL RECORDS. A free collection of Cádiz municipal records (1784-1956) has been updated with over 155,000 new browsable images at FamilySearch.org. The full collection (some of which is indexed) includes “civil registration records, censuses, military records, and other miscellaneous records microfilmed and digitized at municipal archives in the province of Cádiz, Spain.”
U.S. – LOUISIANA WILLS/PROBATE. Ancestry.com’s collection of wills and estate records for Louisiana (1756-1984) has been updated. Indexed images represent nearly 3/4 of Louisiana parishes.
U.S. – NEW YORK CHURCH. Findmypast.com has updated its collection of New York State Religious Records, 1716-1914. Find indexed images of baptisms, marriages and deaths from dozens of churches from various denominations. You can even search by denomination, church name, county or full text.
U.S. – NORTH CAROLINA MARRIAGES. There’s a new index with over 53,000 entries from North Carolina civil marriage bonds and certificates (1763-1868) at FamilySearch.org. Click here to see a description of the index’s coverage.
U.S. – NORTH DAKOTA FUNERALS. An index to records from North Dakota funeral homes hosted by the Red River Genealogical Society is newly indexed at Ancestry.com and can be searched for free. (Click here to search the index on the host website.)
More Genealogy Record Gems
U.S. State Census Records: Capture Your Family History Between Federal Censuses
3 Strategies for Finding Catholic Church Records
U.S. Passport Applications: Finding Immigrant and Traveling Ancestors
Family History Episode 11 – Census Wrap-Up: Decade-by-Decade to 1790

Listen to the Family History: Genealogy Made Easy podcast by Lisa Louise Cooke. It’s a great series for learning the research ropes and well as refreshing your skills.
Originally published 2009
Republished December 17, 2013
Download the Show Notes for this Episode
Welcome to this step-by-step series for beginning genealogists—and more experienced ones who want to brush up or learn something new. I first ran this series in 2008-09. So many people have asked about it, I’m bringing it back in weekly segments.
Episode 11: Census Wrap-Up: Decade-by-Decade to 1790
In our first segment we welcome back genealogy researcher, author and lecturer Lisa Alzo. The author of Three Slovak Women, Baba’s Kitchen and Finding Your Slovak Ancestors talks about discovering family traits and putting them in perspective.
Then in our second segment we wrap up our three-episode coverage of U.S. census records with a decade-by-decade overview of censuses from 1880 back to 1790. We talk about special schedules taken during one or more censuses: mortality, slave, social statistics and supplemental, agricultural, manufacturing and the DDD (Defective, Dependent and Delinquent) schedules.
Updates and Links
For a list of online resources for U.S. federal census data, check out the show notes for Episode 9 at http://tinyurl.com/ShowNotesEp9. More links you’ll want for this episode include:
- Learn more about nonpopulation schedules and other census records in Ancestry’s The Source.
- The FamilySearch wiki article on slave schedules tells you what they contain and links to online resources for them at FamilySearch.org and Ancestry.com.
- A free intro to the DDD schedules by Jana Sloan Broaglin, CG, OGSF, a prior guest on my Genealogy Gems podcast. Search the DDD schedules at Ancestry.com.
- Search the Mortality Schedules at Ancestry.com.
- Search other nonpopulation schedules at Ancestry.com (agricultural, industry/manufacturing, social statistics and supplemental) for some states.