The United States Census of 1890 was conducted on June 2, 1890. The originals covered 95% to 97% of the population, over 62 million people. However, a fire at the National Archives in 1921 destroyed most of the 1890 census. The surviving records list approx. 6000 names which are mostly Veterans Schedules.<br><br>The collections consist of indexes and images of schedules enumerating Union veterans and widows of veterans of the Civil War for the states of Kentucky through Wyoming. Except for some miscellaneous returns, data for the states of Alabama through Kansas do not exist. Some returns include U.S. Naval Vessels and Navy Yards. The schedules are from Record Group 15, Records of the Veterans Administration and is NARA publication M123.<br><br>Federal census takers were asked to record information about every person who was in each household on the census day. A census taker might have visited a house on a later date, but the information he collected was supposed to be about the people who were in the house on the census day. The basic census enumeration unit was the county. Each county was divided into enumeration districts, one for each enumerator. The completed forms were sent to the Commerce Department's Census Office in Washington, D.C.<br><br>Federal censuses are usually reliable, depending on the knowledge of the informant and the care of the census enumerator. Information may have been given to a census taker by any member of the family or by a neighbor. Some information may have been incorrect or deliberately falsified.
