One of the most exciting tools since the advent of the computer is now available through the Mormon Church’s Family History Center concerning the 1880 Federal Census.

The 1880 census has been a problem census until now, due to the fact that a family had to have a child under the age of ten in order to be included on the soundex, a tool used to locate people by the sound of their name. Many do not know this and after checking the soundex they would assume their ancestor was not listed. Those who were aware of this quirk still had a difficult time because the only other method available to them would be to know the state and county in which they lived and go through it on the microfilm line by line.

After many years of diligent work the Mormon Church has compiled every name found on the United States population census for 1880 Census into fifty-five compact disks. These CD-ROMS are available for your use at Clayton Library, the Mormon Family History Centers and you can purchase them for your own personal use.

You do not have to know where your ancestor lived, neither state nor county. You simply click on the 1880 icon on the menu, insert the National Index CD corresponding to the alphabet letter of your ancestor’s name and type in the name. The more information you know, the quicker you will have results. But by the same token the more information you put in the fewer choices you have. There is a section for information such as birth date, color, sex, region and state, but the only thing you really need is the name. The CD will then instruct you to go to another CD and this will bring up an abbreviated view of everyone by that name who is on the census giving their age, whether they are head of household, wife or child, the state and county in which they are living. If you have little information to go on, you can choose them one by one looking at each for additional information.

As you choose each one, the head of household will appear with everyone living with them, the state they are living in, the county and the page number on that county census. You can then go to the original record for verification or copying. You can also bring up a detailed description, giving the occupation and place of birth of the father and mother. To do this, place the cursor on the household and click the Show Details icon on the tool bar.

As with everything else in Family Research, there are no guarantees. This brings into play another useful features on the CD: The advances query search. You can search for specific words or phrases that appear in the record such as minister, judge, physician, any occupation or place of origin such as Sweden, Romania, etc. For example if you had always heard that the person you are researching was a saddle maker you would type in this word. Then every Saddle maker in the Census would appear on the screen and you may find him with a spelling that had never crossed your mind. Another exciting feature is the Neighbor bar. Once your locate your ancestor, you can then access everyone living around him and hopefully you will find the wife’s parents nearby. To start the advanced search, click on Search from the menu, then Neighbors-Advanced Query from the pull down menu. This will cause the advanced query screen to appear, and you can input words or phrases you want to search. Once you find useful information, it can be printed for later scrutiny.

These wonderful disks are available for purchase from the Church of Latter-Day Saints by going by one of their Family History Centers or logging on to http://www.familysearch.com. The cost for all fifty-five disk is only $49.00 and it certainly worth the money.