The 1910 U.S. Census: Discover Your Family History from 1910

The 1910 U.S. Census was taken in April of 1910 and provides a snapshot of the United States at the conclusion of the first decade of the 20th century. An eventful 10 years had passed since the previous census: the Wright brothers had flown the first airplane; Albert Einstein had published the four papers that proved to serve as the foundation of modern physics; and the first effective vaccine against tuberculosis had been developed.

The 1910 Census counted 92,228,496 people living in the United States in 1910, a 21.02% growth from the 76,212,168 people counted in 1900.

What can the 1910 Census show us about our ancestors?

The 1910 Census records contain important details on people living in the United States during the first decade of the 20th century. Here are some of the things you might learn about your ancestors from these records:

• Name
• Age
• Place of residence
• Place of birth
• Relationship to head of household
• Gender
• Race
• Whether they could read and write
• Whether they attended school
• Whether they spoke English or a different language
• Occupation
• Whether they owned or rented their home
• Whether they were a Civil War veteran
• Whether they were blind or deaf-mute

See below for a full list of the questions included on the 1910 Census.

Get more tips by watching Preparing for the 1950 Census: How-to Search the U.S. Census Records:

What changed from the 1900 Census to the 1910 Census?

The number of questions on the 1910 Census grew slightly in comparison to that of 1900: 32 questions instead of 29. The 1910 Census requested more detailed information about each person’s occupation, and instead of merely asking whether the person spoke English, required the enumerator to specify what language the person spoke if not English. Additionally, while the 1900 Census recorded how many months of school the person had attended altogether, the 1910 simply asked whether the person had attended school any time since September of the previous year.

Another important difference is that the 1900 Census was the only currently available census to ask for a specific month and year of birth in addition to the age of each person at their last birthday. To the great chagrin of genealogists everywhere, that question was removed from the 1910 Census and didn’t reappear until 1960, when full birth dates were requested.

Searching the 1910 Census on MyHeritage

While census records are available to the public on the National Archives website, searching on MyHeritage offers invaluable additional benefits:

• Advanced search capabilities: Using MyHeritage’s search engine, you can search for your ancestors according to any criteria and not just home address or enumeration district. MyHeritage’s sophisticated search algorithms can even identify nicknames and name variations from other languages.
• Easily flip between records within the family: MyHeritage allows you to easily flip between census records of individuals in the same family group. Family members are listed on the record page, and you can click their names to go to their records.

• Explore related records: When you are viewing records on MyHeritage, you’ll see additional historical records that mention the person you are researching. Our database includes more than 16 billion records and is constantly growing.

• Receive automatic Record Matches: When you build a family tree on MyHeritage, you won’t even need to search actively. MyHeritage finds historical records that mention the people in your family tree and delivers them straight to your inbox.

• Extract new information straight to your family tree: Extracting information from historical records and placing it on your online family tree is as simple as a few clicks on MyHeritage.

What does a 1910 Census record look like?

Below is a sample population questionnaire from the 1910 U.S. Census. This census contains a record of Dwight D. Eisenhower as a teenager, aged 19, living with his parents, brothers, and one boarder in Dickinson county, Kansas. He can be found right at the top of the sheet on line 1. Click on the image to zoom.

1910 Census record of Dwight D. Eisenhower

Questions included in the 1910 Census form

The 1910 Census contained 32 questions as follows:

LOCATION

Street, avenue, road, etc.

House number (in cities and towns)

1. Number of dwelling house in order of visitation.
2. Number of family in order of visitation

NAME:

3. Name of each person whose place of abode on April 15, 1910, was in this family.

RELATION:

4. Relationship of this person to the head of the family

PERSONAL DESCRIPTION

5. Sex.
6. Color or race.
7. Age at last birthday.
8. Whether single, married, widowed, or divorced.
9. Number of years of present marriage.

Mother of how many children:

10. Number born.
11. Number now living.

NATIVITY.

12. Place of birth of this Person.
13. Place of birth of Father of this person.
14. Place of birth of Mother of this person.

CITIZENSHIP.

15. Year of imigration to the United States.
16. Whether naturalized or alien.
17. Whether able to speak English; or, if not, give language spoken.

OCCUPATION:

18. Trade or profession of, or particular kind of work done by this person, as spinner, salesman, laborer, etc.
19. General nature of industry, business, or establishment in which this person works, as cotton mill, dry goods store, farm, etc.
20. Whether an employer, employee, or working on own account.

If an employee —

21. Whether out of work on April 15, 1910.
22. Number of weeks out of work during year 1909.

EDUCATION:

23. Whether able to read.
24. Whether able to write.
25. Attended school any time since September 1, 1909.

OWNERSHIP OF HOME.

26. Owned or rented.
27. Owned free or mortgage.
28. Farm or house.
29. Number of farm schedule.
30. Whether a survivor of the Union or Confederate Army or Navy.
31. Whether blind (both eyes).
32. Whether deaf and dumb

Where did the 1910 census find your ancestors? Explore the 1910 U.S. Census on MyHeritage now to find out!