Rhode Island, State Census, 1925 - FamilySearch Historical Records

Record Description
The collection consists of an index to the 1925 Rhode Island state census. The census lists residents of the state as of April 15, 1925 by household. The head of household is indicated and the relationship of each person to the head of household is given. Children born after April 15, 1925 are not listed. The records are arranged by county and enumeration district. Microfilm copies of original records are available at the Family History Library and at Family History Centers.

Records for Providence County, Providence Enumeration district: 241 are missing.

Rhode Island began taking its own census every ten years beginning in 1865. The records include most individuals within the counties that were enumerated. The state census was taken in order to enumerate the population for representation purposes. Population schedules were handwritten on printed forms by the enumerators. They are arranged by county and community.

Censuses are usually reliable, depending on the knowledge of the informant and the care of the census enumerator. Information may have been given to a census taker by any member of the family or by a neighbor. Some information may have been incorrect or deliberately falsified.

For a list of records by counties currently published in this collection, select the Browse.

Record Content
The records usually contain the following:


 * Town/city, county and voter district of enumeration
 * Names of individuals living in household on 15 April 1925
 * Relationship to head of household
 * Gender, race and age of each person
 * Birth place of each person
 * Naturalized citizen or alien

How to Use the Record
To begin your search it is helpful to know:


 * The name of your ancestor
 * Other identifying information such as their birthplace or the names of other family members.

Search the Collection
To search the collection by name fill in your ancestor’s name in the initial search page. This search will return a list of possible matches. Compare the information about those in the list to what you already know about your own ancestors to determine if this is the correct family or person.

If you did not find the person you were looking for, you may need to search the collection image by image. ⇒Select "Browse through images" on the initial collection page ⇒Select the appropriate "County" ⇒Select the appropriate "Township/City/Town/Village/Ward" ⇒Select the appropriate "Enumeration District" which takes you to the images.

Search the collection by image comparing the information with what you already know about your ancestors to determine which one is your ancestor. Be aware that with either search you may need to compare the information about more than one person to make this determination.

As you are searching it is helpful to know such information as your ancestor’s given name and surname, some identifying information such as residence and age, and family relationships. Remember that there may be more than one person in the records with the same name as your ancestor and that your ancestor may have used nicknames or different names at different times.


 * If your ancestor used an alias or a nickname, be sure to check for those alternate names.
 * Even though these indexes are very accurate they may still contain inaccuracies, such as altered spellings, misinterpretations, and optical character recognition errors if the information was scanned.

For tips about searching on-line collections see the on-line video at FamilySearch Search Tips.

Using the Information
When you have located your ancestor in the census, carefully evaluate each piece of information about them. These pieces of information may give you new biographical details that can lead you to other records about your ancestors. For example:


 * Use the age listed to determine an approximate birth date. This date along with the place of birth can help you find a birth record. Birth records often list biographical and marital details about the parents and close relatives other than the immediate family.
 * Birth places can tell you former residences and can help to establish a migration pattern for the family.
 * Use the race information to find records related to that ethnicity such as the Freedman’s Bureau or Indian censuses.
 * Use the naturalization information to find their naturalization papers in the county court records. It can also help you locate immigration records such as a passenger list which would usually be kept records at the port of entry into the United States.

Tips to Keep in Mind

 * It is often helpful to extract the information on all families with the same surname in the same general area. If the surname is uncommon, it is likely that those living in the same area were related.
 * Be sure to extract all families before you look at other records. The relationships given will help you to organize family groups. The family groupings will help you identify related families when you discover additional information in other records.
 * Married family members may have lived nearby but in a separate household, so you may want to search an entire town, neighboring towns, or even a county.
 * You may be able to identify an earlier generation if elderly parents were living with or close by a married child.
 * You may be able to identify a younger generation if a young married couple still lived with one of their sets of parents.
 * Additional searches may be needed to locate all members of a particular family in the census.
 * The census may identify persons for whom other records do not exist.

For a summary of this information see the wiki article: United States, How to Use the Records Summary (FamilySearch Historical Records)

Related Web Sites

 * Free Census Project USGenWeb
 * Rhode Island Censuses

Related Wiki Articles

 * Rhode Island
 * Rhode Island Census
 * Rhode Island Censuses Existing and Lost
 * Rhode Island 1915 State Census Records
 * Rhode Island 1935 Census

Citation for This Collection
The following citation refers to the original source of the information published in FamilySearch.org Historical Record collections. Sources include the author, custodian, publisher and archive for the original records.