Beginning with the 1850 census, the names and ages of everyone in a household were recorded. Prior to that, in the 1790 to 1840 census records, only the names of the heads of households were listed, though those censuses included tallies of how many people of each gender in one of several different age groups lived in the house with the head of household. The 1820-1840 censuses also include a tally of the number, gender, and age groups of any slaves owned by the head of household. If you know anything at all about the family you are looking up, you can often turn those tally marks into names. The tally marks may also reveal family members, such as additional children or second or third spouses, who you never knew existed. Therefore, it is important to not discount the early census records just because they only name the head of household. Looking more deeply into them reveals far more.

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