Heads of Families Lists

The University of North Texas Libraries owns copies of selected Heads of Families lists published by the U.S. Census. They are on microfilm and are located in the Microforms Department. Printed indexes are also available. Census microfilm records not at UNT may be obtained for a fee through the National Archives and Records Administration's Microfilm Rental Program.

To use the census to locate information about a person, you must know his or her full name and the state or territory in which he or she lived at the time of the census. It is also helpful to know the full name of the head of the household in which the person lived, since census takers recorded information under that name.

You can use the soundex indexing system, a coded surname (last name) index based on the way a surname sounds rather than the way it is spelled, to find a surname even though it may have been recorded under various spellings.

We have Heads of Families lists for the following years and states:

• 1790 - CT, ME, MD, MA, NH, NY, NC, PA, RI, SC, VT (KY cataloged as 929.1 H364f)
• 1800 - CT, DE, DC, ME, MA, NH, NY, NC, PA, RO, SC, VT
• 1810 - CT, KY, LA, ME, MA, NH, NY, NC, PA, RI, SC, VT
• 1820 - CT, DE, DC, GA, IL, IN, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MS, NH, NY, NC, OH, PA, RI, SC, TN, VT
• 1840 - TX (no microfilm copy—hardcopy is in the Rare Books and Texana Collections)
• 1850 - TX, NM (TX cataloged as F385.C3 v. 1-5)
• 1860 - TX, NM
• 1870 - TX, NM
• 1880 - TX
• 1890 - TX (reel 3 only)
• 1890 (special) - TX
• 1900 - Census enumeration districts descriptions - RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT and VT (reel #9 only)
• 1900 - Soundex - TX
• 1900 - TX
• 1910 - TX
• 1920 - TX