Ancestry.com recently posted a number of indexed and imaged Florida censuses. The database is called Florida, State Census, 1867-1945. It’s a large database, containing 4,131,298 records, most of those records being the 1935 and 1945 censuses. Although the 1885, 1935, and 1945 censuses are found at FamilySearch, the 1867 and 1875 data in digitized form seems to currently be unique to Ancestry.com.
According to the website, the database contains the following state censuses:
- 1867 – Hernando, Madison, Orange, and Santa Rosa counties only
- 1875 – Alachua county only
- 1885 – all counties that existed at the time except for Alachua, Clay, Columbia, and Nassau. This census was partially funded by the Federal government, who supplied the forms.
- 1935 – all counties
- 1945 – all counties
In searching for the surname, Meitzler, I found 4 – all in the 1945 census. Doing a search at FamilySearch.com, I got the same results. I took a close look at the information on Henry W. Meitzler in 1945. According to the census card, he was 65 years old, born in Massachusetts, livng in Precinct 4, St. Cloud, Osceola, County, Florida, was retired and had an 8th grade education.
See the Ancestry.com website for this database. Note – to see they actual images at Ancestry.com, Ancestry.com members can click through directly to the database with this link. Non-members will be redirected with the opportunity to join Ancestry.com for a Free Trial period, or a full subscription. I am pleased to say that I have an Ancestry.com affiliate relationship, and plan to keep it that way for a long time. The FamilySearch databases are free and anyone can access them.
