This site only offers the census schedules for the city of Pittsburgh (1850-1880) and for Allegheny City (1850-1870), presently Pittsburgh's North Side. Due to the circumstances under which we received the census data (see below), we have no plans to add census data from subsequent decades.

History and Accuracy of the Census Data

These data were given to the Digital Research Library by Dr. Larry Glasco, a professor in the History Department at the University of Pittsburgh, who gathered this information for a department project some years ago. Dr. Glasco transcribed from the microfilmed versions of the original census schedules held by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Later, the DRL imported the electronic files into a database and made them searchable from the Historic Pittsburgh website.

Since the Digital Research Library was not directly responsible for transcribing this original data, nor do we know the techniques and methods with which it was originally gathered, we cannot ensure the accuracy of the data or make any changes, corrections, additions, etc. to it.

Because the original census sheets were handwritten, there were occasional problems in interpreting and transcribing the information. In cases where there were problems reading words (particularly names), alternate versions of spellings are displayed. We apologize that the "Full Record" for any individual does not provide specific bibliographic data of the exact volume, page number, and line number of the original census schedule. This data did not allow for easy replication in our database.

Additional Census Information

You can download a pdf file describing the microfilm copies of all these schedules and of schedules for other states, counties, and years available from the Microforms Collection at Hillman Library. Statistical publications from the U.S. Census can be found in the Government Publications Collection at Hillman Library. Paper-based volumes (copies) of the census schedules can be found in the Pennsylvania Department at the main branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.

For more information about the history of the U.S. Census and using the U.S. Census as a reference source, you can refer to the Virginia Center for Digital History's census reference pages for their The Valley of the Shadow Project. Please note that not all of the information on the Virginia website is relevant to the census data in the Historic Pittsburgh Project. We also hope you will consult the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), especially their Genealogy Page for more information on using census records.

Downloading the Historic Pittsburgh Census Data

Users interested in downloading our census data can do so as a WinZip file. Please note: This data are copies of the files the DRL was given for this project. As we constructed our database, we found errors in the data which we corrected. These corrections will only be seen in the data that are searchable on our site; the corrections have not been made in the data available for downloading.

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Historic Pittsburgh is hosted by the University of Pittsburgh's Digital Research Library.