Rhode Island, State Census, 1935 - FamilySearch Historical Records

Record Description
Census data was recorded on punch cards, which remain in good condition.

Rhode Island began taking its own state census every ten years in 1865 and continued through 1935; however, the 1895 census is missing. The 1935 census was recorded by enumerators directly onto punch cards which were then arranged alphabetically by county, then by township (not by town), and then by surname and given name. The collection includes most individuals within the enumerated counties.

The census was taken January through March 1936, but was a list of the State’s inhabitants as of 1935.

The state census was taken in order to enumerate the population for representation purposes.

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.

Citation of This Collection
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Record Content
Key genealogical facts found in the Rhode Island census are:


 * Date and place of enumeration including city, township and county
 * Principal's name and address
 * Principal's gender, race and marital status
 * Date of and place of birth
 * Naturalization status
 * Usual and present occupation
 * Employed or seeking employment
 * Whether or not principal is literate
 * If at school, name of school and grade
 * Physical disabilities
 * Has principal ever had measles, scarlet fever, or diphthera

How to Use This Record
Begin your search by finding your ancestors in the census index. Use the locator information in the index (such as page number or family number) to locate your ancestors in the census. Some on-line indexes, such as indexes to FamilySearch Historical Records, will take you directly to an image. Compare the information in the census to what you already know about your ancestors to determine if this is the correct family or person. You may need to compare the information of more than one family or person to make this determination. Be aware that as with any index, transcription errors may occur.

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 records of 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.
 * If they are subject to military service they may have military files in the State or National Archives.
 * Occupations listed can lead you to employment records or other types of records such as school records; children’s occupations are often listed as “at school.”
 * 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.

Some other helpful tips to keep in mind are:


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

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

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A suggested format for keeping track of records that you have searched is found in the Wiki Article: Help:How to Create Source Citations For FamilySearch Historical Records Collections.