Sanborn Maps & the 1900 Census: Researching Your Ancestors Using State Census Records

The January meeting of the Windham County Genealogy Interest Group focused on an exploration of “Sanborn Maps and the 1900 Census ” & “Researching Your Ancestors Using State Census Records. on Saturday, January 18, 2025, from 11am to 1pm, Zoom and at Brooks Memorial Library.

“Researching Your Ancestors Using State Census Records”

State census were taken between census years for a number of states beginning in 1825 to 1925. These records also include colonial census for New England states, which includes Vermont. The later records may fill in information in between census years and many of them asked unique and different questions from the Federal census that could enhance family information. As examples, these questions such as recording the relationship of the individuals to the head of household, military service, birthplace of parents, and immigration questions. The session explore how to find these census in the databases, a few of state census specific to New England, and other states with the unique questions.

"Sanborn Maps and the 1900 Census"
Using the 1900 Census and the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps we can learn a lot about any ancestors who were alive at that time. Sanborn maps are detailed maps of U.S. cities and towns in the 19th and 20th centuries. Originally published by The Sanborn Map Company, the maps were created to allow fire insurance companies to assess their total liability in urbanized areas of the United States. Since they contain detailed information about properties and individual buildings in approximately 12,000 U.S. cities and towns, they give a picture of a place in a specific time period. The 1900 census schedules contain the most information of all the schedules released to date, give for each person: name; address; occupation, relationship to the head of the household; color or race; sex; month and year of birth; age at last birthday; marital status; if a wife is listed within the household, then the census gives the number of children she had. It also gives birthplace information and citizenship status. We will explore how to use these tools for genealogy.

To join the group, which is completely free of charge, please send an email to
Windham County Genealogy Interest Group [email protected]