Census returns — where to find them free
A household on one day: names, ages, birthplaces, occupations and relationships to the head. The backbone of placing a family in a decade.
Public archives Provara searches for census returns
Passenger lists, naturalizations, military service and pension files, homestead/land files, census images, federal records
Civil registration (birth, marriage, death), church books, population registers, notarial and tax rolls, militia — 207 archives
Billions of historical records and the shared Family Tree — via hint → link-out only, per partner terms
Censuses 1801–1920, church books, emigrant lists
How to ask
In Provara, ask Provara where a family was living in a given census year. With web search on, it searches all 2 live archives above in one call, reads the best hits, and proposes only what the record it read supports — with the record beside the claim.
Start freeEvery licence on these pages was read from the archive's own terms on the date shown. Provara proposes only what a record it has read supports, shows the record beside the claim, and marks anything unsourced as a hypothesis. Nothing on this page states a fact about any person.