EasyGenie's new 1870 census tracker adds a photo feature

After more than a month of design and testing work, EasyGenie’s newest fillable PDF is ready. It’s the expanded 1870 Federal Census Family Tracker, and it has features that will make it a lot easier to organize and highlight information from this important federal census. A video that shows how it works is included at the bottom of this blog article. 

This form is not the same as the simple 1-page form offered previously. The new census family tracker is a two-page PDF with nearly 200 fields that you can type into or copy/paste from other sources. The main feature: a photo upload from your hard drive, typically a copy of the census page in question or a portrait of the family. Crop or resize as needed before adding it to the PDF.

Typed text is Helvetica 9 pt, which is very easy to read on the screen or printed out (which looks great, incidentally). The research notes field can hold an entire paragraph or two of text: 

Why use this PDF, instead of just printing out the original 1870 census image? Besides bad handwriting and vertical column headers on the original images, the tracker makes it easy to highlight family members and organize relevant data. This includes free-form notes pointing to crucial details, such as the deduction of the family’s immigration timing shown in the above example.

In addition, while FamilySearch and other online databases list census information, certain fields such as occupation and foreign-born parents may be excluded from online indexes. The EasyGenie census tracker includes these fields.

The 1870 census was an important document for many reasons, from listing the names of formerly enslaved people to identifying the children of foreign-born parents. More census trackers and other fillable genealogy PDFs that can attach photos are in the pipeline. Stay tuned!

Many thanks to EasyGenie’s beta testers, Rita C., Ann S., and Eve H. for their help running the new PDF through its paces. 

Video: how to use the new census tracker