New York, New York City, Police Census, 1890 - FamilySearch Historical Records

What is in This Collection?
The collection consists of an index to the police census of New York City. This census was taken after the federal census because the city government felt that all of the inhabitants had not been enumerated. By taking this census, an additional 13% of residents were listed. Be aware that some of the books have been lost.

What Can This Collection Tell Me?
The index includes:
 * Name
 * Gender
 * Age
 * Assembly District
 * Election District

How Do I Search This Collection?
To begin your search it is helpful to know:
 * The full name of your ancestor
 * Other identifying information such as age

Search by Name by visiting the Collection Page: Fill in the requested information on the search page. This search will return a list of possible matches. Compare the information about the individuals in the list to what you already know about your ancestors to determine if this is the correct family or person. You may need to look at the information on several individuals comparing the information about them to your ancestors to make this determination. Keep in mind:


 * There may be more than one person in the records with the same name.
 * You may not be sure of your own ancestor’s name.
 * Your ancestor may have used different names, or variations of their name, throughout their life.
 * 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.

What Do I Do Next?
When you have located your ancestor’s record, save a copy of the image or transcribe the information. Look for leads to other records about your ancestors.

I Found the Person I Was Looking For, What Now?

 * Use the age to calculate an approximate birth date.
 * Use the names and place of residence to search other census records.
 * 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.

I Can't Find the Person I'm Looking For, What Now?

 * Look for variant spellings of the names. You should also look for nicknames and abbreviated names.
 * Look for an index. There are often indexes at the beginning of each volume. Local genealogical and historical societies often have indexes to local records.
 * Search the indexes and records of nearby localities.
 * Try alternative search methods such as only filling in the surname search box (or the given name search box) on the landing page leaving the other box empty and then click on search. This should return a list of everyone with that particular name. You could then browse the list for individuals with the same family number.
 * There is also the possibility that a family was missed in the census.

Citing This Collection
Citations help you keep track of places you have searched and sources you have found. Identifying your sources helps others find the records you used.


 * Collection Citation:

"New York, New York City, Police Census, 1890." Database. FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org : accessed 2017. Citing Department of Records and Information Services. Municipal Archives, New York City.

Top of Page