It usually does not take long before beginning genealogists discover the usefulness of the U. S. federal census. Not long after this discovery, they learn about the destruction of the 1890 census.
Since that time, quite a few books have been published as "1890 census substitutes." These generally consist of tax lists, state censuses, voter registration lists, city directories, and other lists of people from the years around 1890, as replacement censuses. Ancestry.com has the largest collection of these "substitute" records, compiled in its collection "1890 Census Substitute."
Certainly the loss of the 1890 federal census was devastating, as would the loss of any record group as universal and informative as the federal census. But why has so much effort been taken to reconstruct this census?
The federal census is useful because, after 1850, it (in theory) provides the names and other personal information concerning every resident of the United States. Created every ten years, one is able to follow most of their ancestors through decennial "snapshots" of their lives.
However, the census being taken every ten years is a fact of the record group, but not a benefit. In fact, it is a disadvantage of the federal census. Most of the record groups used as "1890 census substitutes" were not created decennially. Some were created annually. Yet, because of the absence of this decennial record, only those records surrounding 1890 have been published and, in many cases, genealogists only consult these published 1890-era records.
Consider, for example, the above-mentioned Ancestry collection. One of the records included in this collection is "Baltimore, Maryland Directories, 1890." City directories were created annually in Baltimore since 1864-1865, and many years prior to then. Various editions are available online in several locations, including Fold3, Internet Archive, and the Archives of Maryland Online. The same is true for many cities across the United States. Genealogist Miriam J. Robbins has created the "Online Historical Directories Website," providing links to many of these city directories.
City directories, tax lists, and other annual record groups are often best used by looking at a large number of years across time, to accentuate changes in the local population. Looking only at 1890 is virtually useless. These annual records are not limited by the decennial nature of the federal census, and we are only doing ourselves a disfavor by limiting our access and use of these records as a substitute for another record. Instead, we should take advantage of the benefits these annual records hold.
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