Ancestry.com Blog - » U.S. Content Update: Alabama State Census & Returns from U.S. Military Posts

U.S. Content Update: Alabama State Census & Returns from U.S. Military Posts

Posted by Chris Lydiksen
May 12, 2009

Alabama State Census, 1820-1866
The Alabama State Census was released a few days ago, becoming the second completed World Archives Project collection to be made available to the public. As with all completed World Archives Projects, the index is viewable free of charge! Thank you to the many contributors who keyed in the names, races and other info for the individuals listed, which include, in the 1866 census, ex-slaves freed just a year previous at the end of the Civil War.

This database contains state censuses for the years 1820, 1850, 1855, and 1866. Each of these censuses recorded the names of the heads of household and the number of other household inhabitants according to gender and age categories. Some years also included race categories and distinguished between individuals who were free and who were slaves.

Returns from U.S. Military Posts, 1800-1916
This huge military collection consists of over 1,500 rolls of microfilm. The digitized images are browseable now on the site. The index is currently being created by World Archives Project contributors.

Army Regulations stipulated that every post was to submit a return to the Adjutant General, usually at monthly intervals. These returns showed:

The units stationed at each post
The strength of each unit
Names and duties of the officers
Names of civilians who played a roll at the post
Number of officers present and absent
Listing of official communications received
Record of events

If you are interested in helping index this collection, you may get started today!

About Chris Lydiksen

Chris is the Product Manager for U.S. content at Ancestry.com. Since 2004, he's been focused on U.S. content strategy, acquisition, production, publication and promotion. Chris responds to comments relevant to the blog topic.

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Information: May 12th, 2009; 7 Responses

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Categories: Content; World Archives Project

Other Posts: Good Way to Learn About New Content; Military Records on Ancestry.com: Webinar

Reader Comments

Comment Number:: 1
Written by:: Christine
Posted on:: May 12, 2009 at 8:30 pm

Did I miss something on returning a keyed project? I spent hours interpreting some of the slave manifests, and when I finished, they went nowhere. Then when a tool update was pushed at me, I get a response that what I keyed was old and had to be returned for others to key. What happened to the work I did (twice actually)?

Comment Number:: 2
Written by:: Reed
Posted on:: May 13, 2009 at 5:50 pm

The Returns from Military Posts would be immediately more useful if there was a simple list of the various Posts organized alphabetically by state or territory and including the dates of each Post’s returns. (As it is one has to look at the individual rolls to see which post were in which state and at what times.)

Comment Number:: 3
Written by:: Mary Womack
Posted on:: May 18, 2009 at 7:37 am

I do not know why my “website” is listed as Familytreemaker since I have had abslutely no luck ever with Familytreemaker.

Comment Number:: 4
Written by:: Chris Lydiksen, Ancestry.com
Posted on:: May 18, 2009 at 10:25 am

Reed, thanks for your input. Because of your comments we are working on a new browse structure for the collection.

Comment Number:: 5
Written by:: Jerri Oyama
Posted on:: May 18, 2009 at 12:47 pm

I just spent 45 min. reading all about
and viewing the various instruction
videos only to discover I cannot
participate in this project because I
use an Apple comp. instead of a wonky
windows system!!!!!!!!! Why is this
not stressed in the beginning and why
is it so at all!
I really wanted to work on this project
instead I feel resentment toward
Ancestry.

Comment Number:: 6
Written by:: Pauline Bracey
Posted on:: May 18, 2009 at 3:28 pm

It was my understanding when I started my tree that no one except the people that you invite onto your tree would be able to see living people information. I just discovered someone has gotten to my living people information. I don’t mind sharing information about dead relatives. So how do I fix it so this doesn’t happen again. Thank-you!!

Comment Number:: 7
Written by:: Bob
Posted on:: May 22, 2009 at 9:05 am

Chris the new records database
“History of the Shaw Family” is this a joke or is it a example of the fine work that Ancestry is giving to it’s paying customers? It needs to be REMOVED and rescanned go and see if you can read it!