Censuses, however conducted, are only as good as the quality of their criteria and the ability of census takers to strictly follow the criteria. As transcriber Pat Chestnut clearly notes in her Introduction to her transcription of the enumeration sheets of Nevada County's first California state census in 1852, there are many reasons to use census results with caution.
     The most important censuses for students of Nevada County's demographic history, however, are the decennial federal censuses from 1860 onward. Scans of federal censuses from 1790 to 1950 -- the most recent census year to be publicly released -- can be reviewed and downloaded from a number of public and pay-to-view websites.
     All official censuses, whether conducted by a municipal, county, or state government, or by the federal government, are flawed by their particular political aims and methodologies. Pat Comstock obliquely alludes to the most controversial flaw -- the manner in which, unlike in most other countries, people in the United States have been racialized by official censuses. See Race boxes in US censuses, 1790-2020 (external link) for a general look at federal census taking to date.
     The most effective use of federal census results is found in Ralph Mann, After the Gold Rush: Society in Grass Valley and Nevada City, California, 1849-1870 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1982). For a review, see Mann 1982: After the Gold Rush (external link).

Catalog #: 310 1852
Author: Pat Chestnut (transcriber)
Publisher: Searls Historical Library, Nevada County Historical Society
Published: 1999
Subjects: California, Nevada County, Census, 1852
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