This database details those persons enumerated in the 1860 United States Federal Census, the Eighteenth Census of the United States. Note that at this time the entries from the slave schedules for this census year, are not linked to their corresponding images.
Enumerators of the 1860 census were instructed to record the names of every person in the household. Added to this, enumerators were presented with printed instructions, which account for the greater degree of accuracy compared with earlier censuses. Enumerators were asked to include the following categories in the census: name; age as of the census day; sex; color; birthplace; occupation of persons over age fifteen; value of real estate; whether married within the previous year; whether deaf, dumb, blind, or insane; whether a pauper; whether able to read or speak English; and whether the person attended school within the previous year. No relationships were shown between members of a household.
This release includes the records for the following states: AL, CT, DC, DE, and FL. The following rolls of film, within this updated release, have not yet been linked to federal census images by Ancestry.com, and thus can not be searched in this linked index, M653: 1, 22, 26, 80, 97, 103 and all the rolls corresponding to slave schedules. They have however been indexed and can be searched in the separate, unlinked, U.S. Federal Census indexes at U.S. Federal Census index. For details on the contents of the film numbers that have not been linked yet, visit the following N.A.R.A. web page: N.A.R.A.. The linked images for these rolls of film will be made available on Ancestry.com in the near future.
Additional Information
The official enumeration day of the 1860 census was 1 June 1860. All questions asked were supposed to refer to that date. By 1860, there were a total of thirty-three states in the Union, with Minnesota and Oregon being the latest editions. There were no substantial state or district wide losses.
Taken from Chapter 5: Research in Census Records, The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy by Loretto Dennis Szucs; edited by Loretto Dennis Szucs and Sandra Hargreaves Luebking (Salt Lake City, UT: Ancestry Incorporated, 1997).
William Dollarhide, The Census Book: A Genealogist's Guide to Federal
Census Facts, Schedules and Indexes, Heritage Quest: Bountiful, UT, 2000.