As you learned in chapter 8, church registers are the most popular and useful sources for tracing most Eastern European ancestors. Often these are the only records in which you will find information about your Polish, Czech, or Slovak ancestors and their families in the old country. When census records are available, however, they can be useful, especially in the absence of church and vital records for your locality.
As you probably learned from exploring US or Canadian census records for your ancestors, the prime value of census records is for grouping families together. In Eastern Europe, censuses were usually taken for tax and military conscription purposes. Searching census records can be hit or miss depending on the country, the region, and whether or not registers have been preserved. Because of shifting borders and the destruction of records during wartime hostilities, only relatively small portions of certain record groups survived in many instances. Therefore, you should check registers of births, marriages, and deaths (not census records) first, opposite of what genealogists typically do when looking at North American records for their ancestors.
This chapter will provide an overview of what census records are available, where to find them, and which censuses will be most applicable to your research.
The different types of population counts in Polish history have been lustrums (lustracje, which were historically taken every five years), household tax registers (rejestry podatkowe: 1675), Prussian population surveys (przeglądy: 1789, 1793, and 1797), and municipal revisions (spisy ludności: 1619, 1765, and 1792). The earliest were parish censuses taken in 1567, 1676, and 1775.
In Russian Poland (Kingdom of Poland), the government’s Statistical Department within the General Administration Department (Oddział Statystyczny przy Wydziale Administracji Ogólnej) was founded in 1847 to oversee the collection of statistical reports, including censuses.
Contents of Polish censuses vary according to the censuses and their purposes. For example, the 1793 census for South Prussia (the area taken by Prussia in the 1793 partition) includes names of adult males and widows, the number of people in each household and their householders, but no ages.
Some censuses include specific information. For example, the 1790–1792 census of Poznan (Posen) and Kraków includes school-age children as well as adults and has dates of birth, marriage, and death. Later census records are more standard and include names of heads of family and their children in chronological order, sex, ages or dates and places of birth, civil status, occupations, duration of residency, and so on. For larger cities in Poland, you can find street addresses in city, occupational, or business directories; civil certificates of birth, marriages, and deaths; church records of christenings, burials, and marriages; and taxation records.
Census records for nineteenth-century Poland largely were not preserved (in some instances only compiled information remains) and as such are not available for research. Fragments from limited time periods exist in various archives.
Some census records still exist in archives but are usually not available to researchers. Some censuses are in the Main Archives of Ancient Documents (Archiwum Główne Akt Dawnych, or AGAD) in Warsaw; various district and municipal archives, such as Płock and Kraków; or even local parishes. Most Polish census records are missing, so you may have to contact various archives in the vicinity of the town where your ancestor lived. Familysearch has copies of census records for very few towns in Poland. You will find them in the FamilySearch Catalog under Poland (Province), then (Town) Census. In addition, Ancestry.com has a database of 1939 Jewish census records from Będzin at <search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=1516>.
Finding the street where your ancestor lived will help you search other kinds of records, such as civil registrations and church records (see chapter 8).
From 1772 to 1773, Prussia conducted a land tax census (Marburger Auszüge) of all the Polish lands that it acquired in West Prussia to determine the heads of household, obtain a count of family members, and tax the new households. The paper census was held in the Herder Institute in Marburg, Germany. Microfilm copies are held in the Scientific Institute in Turin, Poland, and a digital index of the Polish heads of household enumerated in this census is available from the Odessa Digital Library collections at <www.odessa3.org/collections/land/wprussia>.
You also may occasionally come across preserved population registers that list family members in each household along with their birth dates, parents’ names, birthplaces, and marital status. These registers were updated on a continual basis, recording any changes in family composition or residence. If extant, these registers are housed in the national archives. You can search a database of this material listed by locality on the Ewidencje Ludności w Archiwaliach (Registers of Population in Archival Materials) database <baza.archiwa.gov.pl/sezam/ela.php?l=en>. This database comprises information on all population registers (lists, rolls, indexes, etc.) found in archival materials of all branches of the Polish national archives. Note that this database does not contain information on parish registers and civil registration nor any lists of names or information on specific people or places. There are other censuses that might be useful for statistical purposes like the 1921 Polish census or the 1897 compilation of localities in Galicia by Jan Bigo. See the Poland Population Censuses sidebar for a list.
The following is a list of Polish censuses provided by The Polish Genealogy Project <www.polishgeno.com/?page_id=10>. While some genealogists might find them helpful, they are not available online and are only accessible through on-site research in the archives or with the assistance of a professional researcher.
Keep in mind that while census records can provide information when other records are missing, proceed with caution when using the information, since it may have been given to a census taker by any member of the family or a neighbor and could be incorrect.
In the Czech Republic, the first censuses were taken beginning in 1158 but have only been preserved in fragments. The records are at the national archives in Prague (no inventory has been published) and are all in Latin.
The first census to record people by name (and therefore to be the most useful to genealogists) was the Soupis poddaných podle víry z roku 1651 (Register of People by Denomination of 1651). The Catholic Habsburg rulers ordered the 1651 census of the Czech lands to determine the religion of the people and the prospects of their conversion. This census was taken to obtain religious information in preparation for the Hapsburgs bringing the country back in line with Roman Catholicism (see chapter 5). Some entire estates are conspicuously missing from the census (presumably Protestant families fearing persecution), but it appears that the overwhelming majority of the populace of Bohemia was recorded.
The 1651 census, which was recorded in German, lists the names of all heads of household, along with names of spouses, children, and servants. Also listed are occupation, age, religion (i.e., whether Catholic or not), and if not Catholic, whether there was hope/no hope of conversion. View a sample page of the 1651 census on FamilySearch.org <www.familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/File:1651_census_of_Podebrady.jpg>.
Summaries also remain of a 1702 count of all people over the age of ten. Though most of them have been lost, censuses were carried out in 1754 and 1762 with revisions every few years, plus population counts in 1770 and 1776 that were largely for military purposes. FamilySearch’s Family History Library (FHL) holds some books containing surviving names of Prague residents from the 1770 census. The first true, comprehensive census was conducted in 1857. To learn more, consult the example on the Czech Census Searchers website <www.czechfamilytree.com/1857census.htm>. Various censuses were subsequently taken regularly (1869, 1880, 1890, various intervals during the 1900s, and 2001). Beginning in 1724, a periodical census of Jews was taken.
While many of the census records in the Czech Republic have been preserved, most of the returns with lists of inhabitants have been lost. In most cases, only summary information from the censuses is available. You will find the contents of Czech census records vary. Some censuses list only the head of household, conscription number of the house, and information on taxable property. Many census returns from the 1800s give house number, head of household, names of members of the household (including servants), ages, occupations, religions, and relationships to the head of household; some also give date and place of birth. An 1869 census holds the greatest amount of information on each family (although censuses as early as 1825 to 1840 may list birthplace, which is the most important piece of information). Each person in the household is listed with his or her sex, birth year, marital status, occupation, religion, and other information. View sample images (image A) along with English translations of the column headings on FamilySearch.org <www.familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Czech_Republic_Census#1869_Census>.
Generally, surviving census records are stored in district archives (okresní archívy) and city archives (mĕstské archívy). Census returns are usually not stored in the state regional archives (státní oblastní archívy). See chapter 8 for information on these archives.
Some census returns have been published. The FHL has published copies of the Prague census and parts of the 1651 and 1770 censuses. FamilySearch.org has an unindexed collection of more than three million census record images from the Czech Republic covering select areas from 1800 to 1945 at <www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1930345>. You also can browse censuses from 1857 to 1921 on subscription site Ancestry.com at <search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=60253>.
Presently, other census materials may be researched in person at the Czech archives, or you may be able to hire a private researcher to search the records for you.
In Slovakia, censuses were taken in the same manner as those conducted in the Czech lands, but according to Hungarian law. Again, these censuses were mostly used for statistical purposes (e.g., taxation and conscription). The first census of the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Hungary took place between 1784 and 1785. Other Hungarian censuses were conducted in 1808, 1828, 1848 (Jews only), 1850, 1857, 1869, 1880, 1890, 1900, and 1910. Under the Czechoslovak government, Slovakia had censuses in 1921, then every ten years from 1930 to 1980, then again in 1991.
Census contents vary. Some censuses list only the head of household, conscription number of house, and taxable property. Many nineteenth-century census returns give house number, head of household, names of members of the household (including servants), ages, occupations, religions, and relationships to the head of household; some also give date and place of birth.
Because most censuses are geographically limited or focus solely on landowners, the 1869 Hungarian census is perhaps the most valuable for genealogical researchers. In some instances, you may be able to obtain at least the year of birth for some of your ancestors when the information is not available in church records. The data listed in each entry include each occupant’s name, birth date, birthplace, occupation, religion, ethnicity, literacy, and other items. Also noted is a detailed inventory of livestock, probably your ancestor’s most valued asset.
Note that this census does not cover all of Slovakia, but only the regions Bytča, Banská Bystrica, and Nitra. Note, too, that because the collection consists of census records created during the period of the Hungarian Empire, the census forms in this record are written in Hungarian and (primarily) German. The 1869 Hungarian census is in FamilySearch.org’s digitized collections <www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1986782>, as well as on Ancestry.com <search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=60145>. At the time of this writing, the collections are not searchable by name, but you can browse the collections’ images. To learn more and view a sample 1869 census record go to <www.familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Slovakia,_Census,_1869_(FamilySearch_Historical_Records)>.
While some records on FamilySearch.org aren’t currently indexed and keyword searchable, they’re still worth examining if you believe your ancestors’ records may be hiding in them. When viewing an unindexed collection, go through the images one by one and compare the information listed with what you already know about your ancestors, such as their names, ages at the time of the census, and hometowns, to determine if the census image you’re viewing contains a match. Because these records are handwritten, you may have to read around marks that obscure the information made by the clerks who compiled the census data. To learn more about browsing unindexed records, read the Unofficial Guide to FamilySearch.org by Dana McCullough (Family Tree Books, 2015) <www.shopfamilytree.com/unofficial-guide-familysearch>.
The best place to begin looking for Slovak censuses is the FHL. Census returns are listed in the FamilySearch Catalog under Hungary—Census and Slovakia—Census. To learn more, consult Hungarian Census Returns by Daniel Schlyter (1982), available in book form at the FHL and on microfiche. Another useful resource with detailed explanations and examples of the Magyar (Hungarian) censuses is the Slovak Genealogy Research Strategies website <www.iabsi.com/gen/public/CensusMain.htm>.
Slovak researchers may find other, more unique censuses helpful as well. For example, a 1775 Ubarial census defined the goods and services that a serf was obligated to give the feudal lord and included the names of landowners and serfs. Microfilm copies of these censuses are found at the FHL, which you can locate via the FamilySearch Catalog under Slovakia, then Slovakia—Taxation. Note that this census uses old Magyar village names. To view an example, see <www.iabsi.com/gen/public/census_1775_1828_examples.htm#1775>.
Likewise, an 1828 land and property holder census documents less than 20 percent of the total Kingdom of Hungary population. Organized by village, this census is written in Latin and has three components for each listed village: a title sheet (village and key village individuals), an enumeration sheet (each head of household), and an observation sheet. You can access the 1828 census via FamilySearch microfilm. While FamilySearch has not indexed villages mentioned in the census, the Slovakia Genealogy Research Strategies website listed earlier provides a helpful list of “Villages named in the 1828 Hungarian Census,” produced by genealogist John Adam. Using this document is the only quick way to locate a village on the census, as the census contains all Hungarian counties (rather than just Slovakia). To view a sample of the 1828 census, see <www.iabsi.com/gen/public/census_1775_1828_examples.htm>.
Finally, a special 1848 census of Jews in Hungary is available at the national archives of Hungary <www.mnl.gov.hu> and FamilySearch <www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/352982?availability=Family%20History%20Library>. In addition, JewishGen has transcribed many of these records. See its 1848 census page <www.jewishgen.org/Hungary/1848Introduction.htm> for details, as well as the collection on Ancestry.com <search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=1382>.