Having problems finding your ancestors in a particular time or place?

Having problems learning who their parents were?

How about confirming their date of birth?

All of these clues/answers (and more) might be found in school census records. In many areas in quite a few states, school districts would take a census of their students to help them properly allocate funds for each school. They did them in various time periods and are incomplete, but if your ancestor was attending a school in a school district where it was taken *and* in a time period they took it, they can be a gold mine of information. 

At the very least, a school census record may place your ancestor in a time and location which can lead to more records and more answers. (And possibly more questions to answer because genealogy. ;) )

TIP: You will want to read each school district's instructions to the enumerator to make sure you fully understand the answers. 

Okay, so let's take a look at and break down the following example of a school census record for Matagorda County, Texas from 1939. (1) [Click on the image for a larger view]

A — To Census Trustees: Read Carefully — The census trustee's (enumerator's) instructions. [Hint: The census trustees were the enumerators and understanding what their instructions were will help you to understand all of the information in this record. So, you need to read this carefully, too.]
B — Race — Schools were segregated based on race in this time period.
C — School district information; in this example, it was left blank.
D — Phone No. of school district.
E — First and last name of students of the same family household who would be six and under eighteen years of age on April 1st. All were to be listed even if they had different surnames, as long as they were in the same family.
F — Birthday of listed students.
G — Age the listed students would be when they would be starting school 1 September 1939; also gender is indicated by the column the age was put into.
H — Handicap designation: Census trustees were asked to indicate if each listed student had any of the following specific handicaps: blind, partially blind, deaf, partially deaf, speech defect, feeble minded, and/or crippled. For the ones who were characterized as crippled, the trustees were also asked to indicate whether the crippled student had a curvature of the spine, club feet, infantile paralysis, leg amputation, arm amputation, or if they were in a wheelchair.
I — Name of county in which family resided last April 1st.
J — How long has this family lived in this District?
K — Nationality (Indicate by language spoken in home) 
L — Parent/Guardian Certification made by the parent that the information given was correct; that they were a resident of the District as of April 1st; that they had custody or charge of the listed children; and that they had not already been enumerated in this State for the scholastic year 1 September 1939 through 31 August 1940.
M — Names of parents.
N — Signature of Parent, Guardian, or person rendering child [Hint: I would be careful with this information, or at least, I would be careful of the parents names listed before this as that explicitly asks for parent's names while this requires the signature of a parent, guardian, or one in charge of the child. Are they the same? Are the answers the same?]
O — Address (In this example, the trustee only listed the city.)
P — Give name of farm, if on farm (Hint: While left blank on this example, one cannot infer that this meant the family/household was not living on a farm because the trustee left other blanks empty on this form.)
Q — Date subscribed and sworn.
R — Signature of Census Trustee (enumerator).

So, is any of this type of information found on this record the type of information you are looking for when researching your family's history? Could it be useful to your research? You betcha! Not all school districts collected the same information unfortunately. Below are a few more examples of school census records in different states. (2), (3), (4)

How to find these records? Try these techniques and places: 11 Places To Look for Your Ancestor's School Records.

So, are you using school census records to find more information about your ancestors? Will you use them?

~Caroline

References:
(1) "Texas, Matagorda County, School Census Records, 1923-1946." Database with images. FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org : accessed 11 August 2015; citing State Board of Education. Matagorda County Judge, Bay City.
(2) "Minnesota, Clay County, School Census Records, 1909-1962." Database with images. FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org : accessed 11 March 2015. Citing State School Superintendent. Auditor-Treasurer, Moorhead.
(3) "Mississippi Enumeration of Educable Children, 1850-1892; 1908-1957." Database with images. FamilySearch. http://FamilySearch.org : accessed 11 August 2015. Citing Department of Archives and History. Government Records, Jackson.
(4) "South Dakota, School Records, 1879-1970." Database with images, FamilySearch. (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QK73-CQJ6 : accessed 11 August 2015), McCook County, 1939. State Historical Society, Pierre.

Findmypast has just announced it will finally integrate its sister site, Mocavo, into its subscription database site. However, they will also be maintaining Mocavo's pledge to remain free forever. That means if a particular collection was free to access before, it will remain free on the Findmypast site. Making both sites' collections searchable from one site, will make searching more convenient for users. Additionally, Findmypast mentions adding more unique US collections during 2016 as they expand into the US market. It will be interesting to see what they add this year. Read the Findmypast release below for more details.

~Caroline

Leading family history website Findmypast, has today announced that sister site Mocavo will be incorporated into Findmypast to create a single experience for customers interested in discovering more about their family history.

The move forms an important part of the US growth strategy set out by Annelies van den Belt, CEO of Findmypast, and will bring the best aspects and features of both sites into one place.
The two websites are currently working together to transfer Mocavo’s strengths and expansive record collections over to Findmypast.

The transition will begin immediately and is expected to be completed within the next few months.

The move is part of Findmypast’s continued expansion and growth in the US market. By merging the two brands, Findmypast will create a more focussed and efficient business that will offer a more comprehensive experience to US customers while continuing to offer the industry’s best British and Irish collections. 

In 2016, Findmypast will also be publishing hundreds of millions of new and exclusive US records to further enhance the experience for US family historians.
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As part of Findmypast’s commitment to sustain Mocavo’s ‘free forever’ promise, Mocavo subscribers will continue to enjoy free access to all of the same records that were previously published for free on Mocavo.  In addition, they will be invited to take advantage of a subscription to Findmypast equivalent to their existing Mocavo subscription.  Mocavo customers can easily import their family trees onto Findmypast and can immediately start to receive hints opening the door to new discoveries that they never knew existed.  A subscription to Findmypast will allow them access to the site’s entire collection of records, containing over eight billion names, as well as the thousands of new records released by Findmypast every week.
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findmypast.com  
Annelies van den Belt, CEO of Findmypast, said; “A key part of our 2016 US growth strategy is to centralise our efforts on one core brand, Findmypast.  Combining Mocavo’s strengths and Findmypast’s massive collection of British and Irish data will allow us to provide a richer and more comprehensive experience to family historians all over the world."

As I've been getting my daughter situated to go back for her second semester at college, I've been thinking about school records. She will be switching majors and switching to the main campus of her university after this next semester, and her records are completely digitized and handled online. 

A stark contrast to our ancestors' school records, for sure. A smidgen are online for us to peruse once we know where to look, but many of them are not. So, as with all records, trying to find what entities created the records and thinking about where they might be stored — online and offline — is the first step in trying to find your ancestors in them.

And just why would you want to find your ancestors' school records? Well they can, at the very least, put your ancestors in a time and a place — very helpful when you can't seem to find them in more-used records like the federal population census. And even when you can find them in population census records, where were they in between the censuses since they were only enumerated every 10 years? Another good reason to try and find your ancestors' school records is that they may reveal their parents' names or siblings.

So while not an exhaustive list, the following 11 places may yield school records for your ancestors.​

Today Findmypast added over 2.3 million UK records and newspaper artilces to their collections. Most notably, are the over 62,000 Pollbooks and Directories for England that span 1830-1837, making them a great census substitute for family history researchers with roots in England in that time period. Also, they have added an additional 2.25 million articles to their historic British Newspapers collection. Check out all of their recent updates with brief descriptions below from Findmypast.

​England, Pollbooks and Directories 1830-1837
 
England, Pollbooks and Directories, 1830-1837, contains over 62,000 records. Each record includes both a transcript and an image of the original source material. The information recorded may vary depending on the source and date, although most will include your ancestor’s name, details of the event that was being recorded and were it was recorded. In many cases, Pollbooks will also include details of their residence and occupation, as well as the names of eligible voters who did not vote. In this collection, you will also find The Quaker Annual Monitor. The Monitor is a list of all the British Quakers who died within the last twelve months. For many of the individuals listed, obituaries with short biographies including causes of death were printed. In some cases, the obituary or memorial is several pages long and details the individual’s dedication to the faith. The Monitor is an excellent source for family historians as the obituaries may include the names of other relatives.

Surrey, Southwark, Newington Apprentice Register 1891
 
The Newington Apprentice Register 1891 lists the details of apprentices who trained in the Newington district of Southwark. Each record consists of a transcripts created using the original apprentice records held at the Southwark Local History Library. Each transcript will reveal an individual apprentice’s name, age, the name of their master, where their master was based and the names of their parents.
 
Hertfordshire, Parish Registers Browse, 1538-1988
 
A browse function has been added to our collection of over 1.9million Hertfordshire Parish Registers. It is now possible to browse through over 1,600 register books from cover to cover. The books contain records of baptisms, banns, marriages and burials conducted across 400 years of the county’s history.
 
British Newspapers Update
 
Over 2.25 million new articles and 8 brand new newspaper titles have recently been added to our collection of historic British newspapers. The latest additions cover the cities of London and Glasgow as well as towns in the English counties of Devon, Lincolnshire, Shropshire, and West Sussex. Significant updates have also been made to 45 existing titles. 

~Caroline

Check out the latest records FamilySearch added to their collections — more US GenealogyBank Obituaries, Supreme Court case files from North Carolina, more death certificates for Utah, and naturalization indexes for Rhode Island Plus, more updates to international collections.