It is common knowledge that the 1890 Federal Census population schedules were almost completely destroyed by a fire in 1921. For New York State, only small parts of the Towns of Brookhaven in Suffolk County and Eastchester in Westchester County escaped the flames. There are, however, three substitutes for the missing census:
- 1890 Census Special Schedule for Union Veterans and Widows of Union Veterans of the Civil War has survived for many states including New York. It is available on NARA microfilm M123, with copies in many libraries including the NYG&B Collection at NYPL. There is also a printed index to the New York schedule. This special schedule is available as an online database on Ancestry.com.
- 1890 New York City “Police” Census. For the City of New York (consisting in 1890 of Manhattan and the western half of what is now the Bronx), there is the “Police” Census of 1890, so called because police officers acted as enumerators. The census was recorded in 1,008 books, of which 894 survive. All the surviving books are available on FHL microfilm, with copies at New York Public Library and other repositories. As of May 2011 some election districts are online at Ancestry.com and can be searched there by name. For other districts it is necessary to determine an address from the city directory and then consult A.D. (Assembly District) and E.D. maps (on the first reel of the FHL film) or consult the book Aid to Finding Addresses in The 1890 New York City Police Census, by Howard M. Jensen (Heritage Books, 2003), which indicates the exact FHL film and exact book on that film where the address appears (if the address is not listed, it is not on an existing film).
- 1892 New York State Census. In 1892 the State of New York took its own census. As with the other New York state censuses, the county clerks retained a copy of their counties’ schedules, and sent another copy to the State Library in Albany. Unfortunately all of the State copies were destroyed in the State Library fire of 1911, and many of the county clerks have lost their copies for other reasons. The counties where copies survive are: Albany, Allegany, Broome, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Chemung, Clinton, Cortland, Delaware, Dutchess, Erie, Essex, Greene, Hamilton, Herkimer, Kings, Lewis, Madison, Monroe, Montgomery, Nassau (then part of Queens), Niagara, Onondaga, Ontario, Orleans, Oswego, Otsego, Queens, Rockland, Saratoga, Schenectady, Schoharie, Steuben, Tioga, Tompkins, Warren, Washington, Wayne, and Yates.
All of the above county copies of the 1892 census are available on FHL microfilm, and all of the films are available in the NYG&B Collection at NYPL. There are printed indexes or finding aids for a few counties (see Finding Aids for New York State Censuses). As of May 2011, searchable images of the census for all surviving counties are being added to the FamilySearch website; ten counties are also available through Ancestry.com.
by Harry Macy Jr., FASG, FGBS
Vetted for accuracy July 2011
© 2011 The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society
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