CensusTools

When I created my U.S. Federal 1790-1920 spreadsheet for my own use, I certainly had no idea that I would be following it up with 25 more! And there is still more to come.

Next up will be state spreadsheets for Iowa, Nebraska, New Jersey, Minnesota, and Illinois. I will also create a Tracker and Checklist for each of those states. I expect to release those spreadsheets by late May.

After the next batch of state census spreadsheets, my collection will be mostly complete. There may be a few other state candidates for a spreadsheet, but not many. Many states either never held their own census, have little to no surviving records, or didn't collect genealogically significant data.

I have received questions about whether I will be creating other types of spreadsheets, for obituary or cemetary information for example. For the following reasons, I think not. Census data is unique in several ways. It is highly structured. Each federal and state census year is formatted in a specific way. Census data is difficult to organize electronically because the genealogy software heavy hitters like Family Tree Maker haven't provided a way to enter highly formatted information. My spreadsheets really scratched an itch among researchers who had no easy way to electronically record their important data in this increasingly digital world. I don't see that the same demand would exist for other types of genealogy data. I haven't ruled out other types of spreadsheets but I am not actively pursuing non-census ideas.