The St. Clair County Courthouse completed in 1861

Census Records

St. Clair County Genealogical Society (SCCGS) Helping genealogists discover their Illinois roots since 1977.

The federal census is one of the first tools genealogists use to discover more about their ancestors. Taken every 10 years since 1790, this census is widely available on commmercial websites, some for free (keep reading). In addition to population schedules, special schedules were also compiled 1850-1880, e.g., agricultural, industrial, and mortality. Illinois, too, took censuses, as did the French long before statehood in 1818.

The Society has several censuses available:

• The 1840 and 1870 federal census, and an 1890 substitute in separate books.
• The 1880 federal census in a Quarterly series, beginning with vol. 21 no. 3. Search for your ancestor's surname here.
• The mortality schedules taken in 1850 and 1860 in vol. 4 no. 3 (1981), the 1870 in vol. 4 no. 4, and the 1880 in vol. 13 no. 3 its Quarterly. Search for your ancestor's surname here.
• The 1870 agricultural census is on the SCCGS website.
• Military census taken during the Civil War and smaller miscellaneous census extracts were also published in its Quarterly. Search for the word census in the Table of Contents using your browser's "find" feature.

The order in which St. Clair County villages and townships appear on the microfilm for 1810-1930 is provided in St. Clair County Research and Resources: A Genealogist's Guide. This tool is useful when name searches are unsuccessful and you want to browse a particular location.

Offsite, these 1920 extracts of Lithuanians and Russians for St. Clair County are online.

1930 federal census extracts with annotations are online, courtesy the St. Clair County US Gen Web Project Page.

1940 federal census digital images are free and browsable (offsite) on the National Archives website and some commercial sites. FamilySearch is coordinating a massive indexing project – click here to volunteer.

Offsite tools and guides for Illinois censuses:

• The National Archives genealogy page has excellent background information for each census.
• Read enumerators' instructions and sample forms for all census years, courtesy of the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series web site.
• Illinois censuses online and in print, courtesy of FamilySearch.
• Print blank federal census forms courtesy of FamilySearch.