Watch Video: Early Federal Census Worksheet: An Introduction (9 minutes)
NOTE: The Lite edition mentioned in the video has been discontinued.
Requires the desktop version of Microsoft Excel for the PC or Mac.
The Early Federal Census Worksheet is a genealogy spreadsheet application that allows the easy capture and analysis of the decennial U.S. federal census data from 1790 to 1860. Lining up data over time, it creates a visual comparison of the changing composition and geographical locations of families, including white, free nonwhite, and enslaved members of any given U.S. household. Users will be able to harness the computing power of Microsoft Excel to expand on the already valuable functions of this tool—hiding and rearranging data, adding comments, and using text formatting.
The U.S. decennial censuses were very limited for the research of all U.S. inhabitants before 1850, offering the names of only the heads of households, with mere tallies for all other household inhabitants by age ranges, sex, and ethnic origin. In 1850 and 1860, before the emancipation of U.S. enslaved persons, the census schedules rarely named them—creating additional challenges for genealogical researchers through 1860. Decade by decade the government changed what it asked census takers to track, making it very difficult to easily compare data from one census to the next. This tool works past these limitations, allowing you to see patterns that raise essential questions and sometimes answer them.
The Early Federal Census Worksheet contains a tab labeled “Instructions,” which will guide you in the use of the product. You will find the tab at the bottom of your Excel window.
You are allowed to make as many copies of this tool as you like, for your own personal or professional research use. You may share your worksheets with others for viewing, if you are collaborating on family history or if you are doing genealogical research for someone else. If the other party will be altering data, they will need their own copy of the tool.
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arherrod (verified owner) –
This app is the best! I have been waiting for the Mac version and now it is here. The program is the only one of its kind that simplifies determining family relationships using census data. Thank you Donna Cox for this great program.
GCPAdmin (verified owner) –
Thanks so much! I’m glad you are finding it useful!