The date a census taker wrote on his form isn't as important as the official census date: Enumerators were supposed to list individuals' ages as of a date specified by the Census Bureau. Jan. 1 was “Census Day” for the 1920 enumeration, so someone born Feb. 12, 1909, should be recorded as 10 on the census form-even if the census taker visited in April. This magic date varied, so use this chart to sort out ancestors' reported ages:

 

Census: Census Day

 

1790: Aug. 2

1800: Aug. 4

1810: Aug. 6

1820: Aug. 7

1830: June 1

1840: June 1

1850: June 1

1860: June 1

1870: June 1

1880: June 1

1890: June 1

1900: June 1

1910: April 15

1920: Jan. 1

1930: April 1 (Oct. 1, 1929 in Alaska)

1940: April 1

 

Do you have hard-to-find ancestors in US census records? Check out these resources for researching your genealogy in census records from ShopFamilyTree.com: