Federal censuses for South Dakota begin in 1860 and continued every ten years thereafter. They are currently available through 1920 (except for the mostly destroyed 1890 census). All are indexed except 1910. Although the Dakotas fell under Minnesota Territory for the 1850 federal census, the only whites enumerated actually lived in that territory's Pembina County, now North Dakota. Many early censuses of the state's Indian Reservations have been microfilmed and are available at the FHL, as well as the South Dakota State Historical Society, where they are available on interlibrary loan.
Numerous state-generated censuses for the Dakota Territory and the state of South Dakota were compiled and are available for research at the South Dakota State Historical Society. The Dakota Territory federal-sponsored 1885 census was taken under federal guidelines just before statehood and is extant for twenty counties in present-day South Dakota: Beadle, Butte, Charles Mix, Edmunds, Fall River, Faulk, Hand, Hanson, Hutchinson, Hyde, Lake, Lincoln, Marshall, McPherson, Moody, Roberts, Sanborn, Spink, Stanley, and Turner. The 1885 census also contains a veterans census. An 1895 state census also exists, available with ledger-style indexes, though only for Beadle, Brule, Pratt (now Jones), Presho (now Lyman), Campbell, and Charles Mix counties. These censuses can be borrowed on microfilm from the South Dakota State Historical Society. Those cenuses taken in 1905, 1915, 1925, 1935, and 1945 are also located there, but are not available on microfilm. Card file indexes exist for the 1905–45 censuses. The 1905 is an especially valuable census for the genealogist as a land description is given, as well as the length of time the individual was in South Dakota, and, if the individual was foreign-born, the time of residence in the United States. |
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