CENSUS RECORDS

Federal censuses in Vermont begin in 1800 and continued every ten years thereafter. They are currently available through 1920 (except for the mostly destroyed 1890 census). All are indexed except 1870 and 1910. Because Vermont joined the union as the fourteenth state in 1791, it missed the first federal census by one year. (Although there is a census labeled 1790, it was actually taken one year later.) Families in other states may be listed on that state's 1790 census and again in Vermont's enumerations one year later, having migrated in the interim. Countywide 1870 census heads-of-household indexes for Windham and Windsor were privately published by Joan M. Morris in separate volumes (1977, 1980).

The 1810 and 1820 censuses for some Vermont towns include a tally of such things as the number of yards of material made on the premises and the amount of lumber milled. When using the census records, care should be taken to consider alternate spelling, especially for French Canadians, Italian, and Greek names of new immigrants after 1850.

The so-called 1771 Census by Jay Mack Holbrook (Oxford, Mass.: Holbrook Research, 1982) is not an "official" census. It is a collection of names associated with Vermont in 1771 drawn from several sources in New York, New Hampshire, and Connecticut as well as Vermont. Many of those listed were granted land but never lived in Vermont. Checking the appearance of the name in the original source should help clarify this.

Vermont Research Sources

Bassett, T. D. Seymour, ed. Vermont: A Bibliography of Its History. 1981. Reprint. Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 1983.

Eichholz, Alice. Collecting Vermont Ancestors. Montpelier: New Trails, 1986.

Swift, Esther Munroe. Vermont Place-Names: Footprints of History. Brattleboro,Vt.: Stephen Greene Press, 1977.

Hemenway, Abby Maria. Vermont Historical Gazetteer. 5 vols. Burlington, Vt., and others, 1867–91. (An index covering all towns except those in Windsor County was published in 1923 by Tuttle Company, in Rutland, Vermont, and indicates town as well as volume and page number for the person named.)

Archives, Libraries, Societies and Other Resources

Vermont State Archives
Location at Redstone:
26 Terrace Street
Montpelier, VT
Mail:
109 State Street
Montpelier, VT 05609-1101
Tel: 802-828-2308
E-mail: gsanford@sec.state.vt.us

Vermont Department of Libraries
Reference and Law Services
109 State Street
Montpelier, VT 05609
Tel: 802-828-3261
Fax: 802-828-2199
http://dol.state.vt.us/

Genealogical Society of Vermont
P.O. Box 1553
St. Albans, VT 05478-1006
E-mail: 76165.3613@compuserve.com

New England Historical and Genealogical Society (NEHGS)
101 Newbury Street
Boston, MA 02116-3007
Tel: 617-836-5740
  888-AT-NEHGS (Membership & Education)
  888-BY-NEHGS (Sales)
  888-90-NEHGS (Library Circulation)
Fax: 617-536-7307
E-mail: nehgs@nehgs.org
http://www.nehgs.org/

Vermont French-Canadian Genealogical Society Library
St. John's Club
9 Central Avenue
Burlington, VT
Mail:
P.O. Box 65128
Burlington, VT 05406-5128
E-mail: vtfcgs@aol.com

Vermont Historical Society
Pavilion Office Building
109 State Street
Montpelier, VT 05602
Tel: 802-828-2291

Bennington Museum/Genealogical Library
West Main Street
Bennington, VT 05201
Tel: 802-447-1571
Fax: 802-447-8305