No other official record or group of records is as historically significant as the 1790 census of the United States. The original 1790 enumerations covered the present states of Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, and Virginia. Unfortunately, not all the schedules have survived, the returns for the states of Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, Tennessee, and Virginia having been lost or destroyed, possibly when the British burned the Capitol at Washington during the War of 1812, though there seems to be no proof for this. For Virginia, taxpayer lists made in the years 1782-1785 have been reconstructed as replacements for the original returns. In response to repeated requests from genealogists, historians, and patriotic societies, the surviving census records were published by the Bureau of the Census in 1907 and 1908. The twelve states whose records were then extant are each covered by a single volume. The twelve published volumes contain the names of the heads of about 400,000 families, with information concerning their place of residence, the size of their families, and the approximate ages of the male family members. The families, averaging six people each, comprised about 2,400,000 individuals, or approximately 75% of the total population of the United States at the time.

No other official record or group of records is as historically significant as the 1790 census of the United States. The original 1790 enumerations covered the present states of Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, and Virginia. Unfortunately, not all the schedules have survived, the returns for the states of Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, Tennessee, and Virginia having been lost or destroyed, possibly when the British burned the Capitol at Washington during the War of 1812, though there seems to be no proof for this. For Virginia, taxpayer lists made in the years 1782-1785 have been reconstructed as replacements for the original returns. In response to repeated requests from genealogists, historians, and patriotic societies, the surviving census records were published by the Bureau of the Census in 1907 and 1908. The twelve states whose records were then extant are each covered by a single volume. The twelve published volumes contain the names of the heads of about 400,000 families, with information concerning their place of residence, the size of their families, and the approximate ages of the male family members. The families, averaging six people each, comprised about 2,400,000 individuals, or approximately 75% of the total population of the United States at the time.

The First Census of the United States (1790) comprised an enumeration of the inhabitants of the present states of Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, and Virginia. Unfortunately, during the War of 1812, when the British burned the Capitol at Washington, the returns for Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, Tennessee, and Virginia were destroyed. For Virginia, however, taxpayer lists were published in an attempt to partially reconstruct the original returns. Fortunately, the census records for Connecticut survived and were available for this 1908 publication. In March 1790, Connecticut had a population of 237,946, out of a total population of approximately 3,920,000. The information provided in this census includes the Name of Head of Family, the number of free white males of 16 years and upward in the household, the number of free white males and under living in the household, the number of free white females, all other free persons, and the number of slaves. Populations are also recorded for Towns and Counties.

The federal census of Vermont for 1800 was never published by the government. It survived in the form of the original enumerators' sheets until 1938, when the Vermont Historical Society published it for the first time. Since the 1790 census showed Vermont's population to be 85,000 and the 1800 census indicated that it had grown to 154,396, the value of this later census to the genealogist is obvious. The records in this publication are grouped under the counties of Addison, Bennington, Caledonia, Chittenden, Essex, Franklin, Orange, Rutland, Windham, and Windsor, and thereunder by towns. Names of the heads of households are given in full and for each there is given, in tabular form, the number of free white males and females, by five age groups, and the number of other associated persons except untaxed Indians. Altogether over 25,000 families are listed. Includes a map of the state in 1796.

"No other official record or group of records is as historically significant as the 1790 census of the United States. The taking of this census marked the inauguration of a process that continues right up to our own day--the enumeration at ten-year intervals of the entire American population" -- publisher website (June 2007).