CensusMate makes it easy to organize and work with the pre-1850 data -- This website demonstrates this novel timeline format. It shows and explains many examples, and allows downloading of blank worksheets for use with your own data.

The two figures below hint at the way the census data on Henry Haynes and his family are easier to understand and analyze in the timeline format. Go to the examples to see the details ... but first, peek at our suggestions for using the site-->

• Only the head of household is named.
• Ages are bracketed into coded ranges.
• Those age ranges vary from two to 20 years,
• The ranges change from year to year.
• The 1820 census, for example, is modified from the 1810 census.
• And the 1830 census is modified from that.
• Analyzing those data causes errors and confusion.

• Age range brackets are easy to see.
• Range of birth years is shown on the timeline.
• Data can be aligned with other census years to greatly narrow the range of birth dates.
• Data from other sources such as wills, bibles, marriages, or later census can help analysis.
• The combination helps identify unnamed children.
• Math calculations are unnecessary, avoiding errors.