U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government


end of header

History

You are here: Census.govHistoryGenealogyDecennial Census Records › 1890 "Veterans Census"
Skip top of page navigation

Decennial Census Records

1890 "Veterans Census"

1890 veterans schedule
View larger image

An entry for President Rutherford B. Hayes
in the 1890 Veterans Census.
Photo courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.

Often confused with the 1890 census, and more often overlooked or misjudged as useless, are nearly 75,000 special 1890 schedules enumerating Union veterans and widows of Union veterans.

The U.S. Pension Office requested this special enumeration to help Union veterans locate comrades to testify in pension claims and to determine the number of survivors and widows for pension legislation. (Some congressmen also thought it scientifically useful to know the effect of various types of military service upon veterans' longevity.) To assist in the enumeration, the Pension Office prepared a list of veterans' names and addresses from their files and from available military records held by the U.S. War Department.

Nearly all of the schedules for the states of Alabama through Kansas and approximately half of those for Kentucky appear to have been destroyed before transfer of the remaining schedules to the National Archives in 1943. Fragments for some of these states were accessioned by the National Archives as bundle 198.

For more information about the Special Enumeration of Union Veterans and Widows, see the National Archives Prologue article, "First in the Path of the Firemen: The Fate of the 1890 Population Census, Part 2.
[an error occurred while processing this directive] This symbol Off Site indicates a link to a non-government web site. Our linking to these sites does not constitute an endorsement of any products, services or the information found on them. Once you link to another site you are subject to the policies of the new site.
Is this page helpful?
Thumbs Up Image Yes Thumbs Down Image No
NO THANKS
255 characters maximum 255 characters maximum reached
Thank you for your feedback.
Comments or suggestions?
Source: U.S. Census Bureau | Census History Staff | Last Revised: December 14, 2023