We have officially kicked off one of the most ambitious one-name projects in history. A small group of volunteers has begun to transcribe each and every US Federal Census Schedule for all Williams individuals and families, including the common variations (William, Wiliam, etc), and making those transcriptions available to the general public.

    Why are we doing this you might ask? Well, there are a number of reasons:

   1.) Many folks out there struggle with getting a census lookup done...many folks cannot afford the cost of the subscription based service and while, yes, there are folks out there who are happy to do lookups, it seems to be a beast of burden to those who need it.

   2.)  What does the future of the subscription services hold...not as much as whether they will be around as much as what the costs will go and whether or not folks will be able to continue to afford them  

   3.)  And the most indicative thing is the number of hits the existing census transcriptions have been getting. The high numbers say that folks are using them and that the effort would not be wasted.

Transcription Statistics

Last Upload: 12 Aug 2013
# of Records in last update: 4997
# of Records in the database: 22,177
# of Record left to go (approx.): 3,025,626
Last 5 Record Sets Added:

1830 - NJ, NY, NC, OH - 11 Apr
1820 - NY & TN - 11 Apr
1830 - AL, DE, DC, FL, GA, IN, LA, ME
MD, MI, MS, MO, NH - 7 Feb
1800 - COMPLETED!! - 20 Jan

Consider Volunteering!!!   
    This is a massive effort and we need all the help we can get. We are using MS Excel or Open Office Calc in combination with our Ancestry and Heritage Quest subscriptions to do the transcriptions. But, this isn't a requirement, we need proofers and other transcription assistance as well! Please consider giving some time to this important effort. Contact Adrian directly.

Some important notes about the transcriptions...

    As with any transcription effort, it is most important to remember that nobody is perfect, and that no matter how dilligent a person may be, mistakes do happen. During this project, we have followed a very specifc process and every effort has been made to reduce the possibility of missing or mistranscribing data. Specifically, we take the indexes that are available for both Ancestry.com and Heritage Quest, compare them for differences and compile an overall index of the Williams records from both systems. We then repeat this process for the surname variations of William, Wiliam, etc. and in the end we have what we consider to be the most comprehensive electronic index possible.

   Does that mean we absolutely have them all? No. Because the indexes themselves are generated by individuals who have created them from looking at the records, they are prone to errors (as we have found). We are doing our best to find these errors and correct them. However, this is such a vast and complex undertaking that we are bound to miss something. So, if you are looking for someone and do not see them listed here, double check the actual census rolls to be double sure. And, if you find an error, please be sure to let Adrian know as soon as possible so it can be corrected.

   Finally, you will find places in the various records where data is missing. Sometimes, the index survived while the records themselves have not and in those cases, we have included the index. Quite often, portions of census records have gone missing or have been destroyed (for example the 1820 Randolph Co., NC census). In those cases, a good suggestion is to try to rebuild the index from the tax lists that are available for the area. Many folks use the 1815 Randolph Co. Tax List as a replacement for the 1820 Census.

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Current Transcription Statuses - Year by Year, State by State