Preface
In 1986 I began transcribing and publishing the 1855 and 1865 Massachusetts state censuses. As a result of my work I was asked to speak on state censuses at the convention held by the Federation of Genealogical Societies in Boston in 1988. Since I had personal knowledge of the state censuses of only Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New York, I began preparing for my lecture by looking at what was in print on state census records in general. I quickly found that much of this material was misleading at best and wrong at worst.

Introduction
Researchers may quite rightly ask why we should concern ourselves with state censuses when federal censuses are so widely and readily available. There are several answers to this question. State censuses may fill in gaps left by missing federal censuses. State censuses may not be closed to the public for a seventy-two year period as are federal censuses; in fact some state censuses taken as recently as 1945 are available to the public. Many state censuses ask different questions than federal censuses, so you may find information about your ancestors that would never be found in the federal records. And finally state censuses can help fill out the picture of your ancestors and help solve genealogical problems.