Family historians trying to trace relatives through the 1890s have long hit the same wall: nearly all of that decade's federal census records were destroyed in a 1921 fire.
On Monday, Aug. 10, a free session at the Grapevine Public Library will show local researchers how to work around the gap.
The Grapevine Name Droppers Genealogy Group meets from 10:30 a.m. to noon to walk through the alternative records that can stand in for the lost 1890 data. The session is free and open to the public.
The records fire remains one of genealogy's most frustrating dead ends. On Jan. 10, 1921, a blaze in the basement of the U.S. Department of Commerce building in Washington, D.C., damaged or destroyed the vast majority of 1890 census schedules.
The U.S. Census Bureau wrote in a January 2021 retrospective that the fire left "an enormous gap in many families' genealogical record." A 1996 National Archives article notes the records were stacked outside the fireproof vault and were "first in the path of the firemen." Congress authorized destruction of the remaining damaged pages on Feb. 21, 1933.
Less than 1 percent survived, covering roughly 6,160 individuals. Texas has fragments from Ellis, Hood, Rusk, Trinity and Kaufman counties, but none from Tarrant County appear in surviving indexes.
Monday's presentation will cover the kinds of records genealogists use to bridge the 20-year gap between the 1880 and 1900 censuses. Those substitutes include city directories, state and local censuses, voter registration lists, tax records, court records, naturalization records, local newspapers and the 1890 Civil War veterans schedule, which largely survived the fire.
The Name Droppers group is an informal gathering of genealogical enthusiasts affiliated with the Grapevine Public Library. Nancy Maxwell is listed as the group's organizer on the library's event calendar. The group meets monthly on Mondays and regularly tackles specific research tools and archives. In July, the session covered resources at the Library of Congress.
No registration is required.
Residents can call 817-410-3429 for more information.
Upcoming Name Droppers sessions:
- Monday, Oct. 12: topic to be announced
- Monday, Nov. 9: Revolutionary War Medicine and Medical Records
