Open Genealogy Data

US Census

The census, taken every 10 years, provides a historical snapshot of where people lived, who they lived with, and other useful information (occupation, age, place of birth, nationality of parents, and so on). The census is made public after 72 years, but without a searchable transcript.

Join us in transcribing census images to create a database that can be searched online or used for completely new projects and research.

• •Transcribe pages near your current location, pages near a specific county, or (soon) pages with your ancestors' names on them.
• •Search the database for free.
• •Download bulk data for research and innovation.
• •Learn more about the census.

Data Uses

With transcribed census records, it will be possible to match people from one census to another, map/geolocate where they lived, and link the census records to other databases and other types of records. We are collaborating with Censcript AI to use census data to train automatic transcription systems that will help with this project and future Open Genealogy Data projects.

Census data will also be useful beyond the field of genealogy. Universities, scientists, and others will use the data for research in fields like sociology, anthropology, economics, and history.