California Census

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Indexes: fiche, film, or book
For a list of microform and book indexes for the population schedules of California, click here

Indexes: fiche, film, or book
For a list of microform and book indexes for the non-population schedules of California, click here.

State, territorial, and colonial censuses

 * The California State Library and the Family History Library have copies of a state census of 1852 (Family History Library films 909229-34). This census gives information on the entire household, including an individual's state or country of birth and last residence.


 * Pre-statehood lists (called padrons) of Spanish, Mexican, and Indian residents have been published in The Quarterly (Historical Society of Southern California), Volumes 15, 18, 41-43, 54 (Family History Library book 979.4 B2s). Especially helpful are the Los Angeles censuses of 1790, 1836, and 1844. The original records are scattered among various archives. The Family History Library has copies on microfilm.

Existing and lost censuses
For a list of available and missing California censuses, click here.

Why use a census?
A well-indexed census is one of the easiest ways to locate where an ancestor's family lived and when they lived there. You can also use censuses to follow the changes in a family over time, and identify neighbors. These and other clues provided by censuses are important because they help find additional kinds of records about the family.

More about censuses
Click here for additional details about how to use censuses, such as:


 * index searching tips
 * analyzing and using what you find
 * census accuracy
 * historical background
 * contents of various census years and types