Census

Census records are the framework of your family history puzzle. The federal census is taken every ten years in years ending with zero. The first Missouri federal census was taken in 1830, the first federal census year after statehood. These records are available at local libraries or online.

Some state, county, territory, and local census records are available. Missouri took a state census in a variety of years. Check your counties of interest as some, but not all, Missouri state censuses are extant.

The early French and Spanish residents also took territorial censuses. Some tax records were gathered to simulate a pre-statehood census. Genealogist Robert Parkin compiled a reconstructed 1776 St. Louis census, which is available here.

• • The Spanish took the first census of St. Louis in 1772 showing thirty-three white men and women and eighteen slaves. There were seventeen males, seven were under fourteen, nine were between fourteen and fifty, and one was over fifty. Of the sixteen females, eight were under fourteen, seven between fourteen and fifty, and one over fifty.
  • The second Spanish census was a detailed statistical report of products of St. Louis in 1773, but it also names traders and their bateaus (boats) as well as heads of farm families who produced the province’s grain. The population in the entire Spanish territory had increased to 1,299 of which St. Louis then had 399 whites and 198 enslaved individuals.
  • The third statistical report follows the same form and provides additional names of emigrants to St. Louis. The report for 1775 also is much the same. The 1776 report no longer exists.
  • The next statistical census of St. Louis was taken in the 1790s. However, there are substantiating records such as the Catholic church register, militia rolls of 1780, and Spanish Archives, including Livres Terrien (land books) and civil marriage contracts. All of these records were used in compiling the file of original settlers as well as the 1776 census of St. Louis.

An 1805 census from the Missouri Territory includes residents, mostly male, who lived in the eastern portion of what is now the state.

Both the 1850 and 1860 federal censuses for Missouri included mortality schedules. These special censuses include those who died in the previous year and what they died from. StLGS volunteers indexed the two mortality schedules for St. Louis County. You can find the 1850 Mortality Schedule here. The 1860 Mortality Schedule is here.

Last modified: 31-May-2025 10:16