The US Constitution requires that a federal census be conducted every ten years; the federal census has been conducted since 1790. The records from 1790-1950 are made publicly available by the US National Archives; census records for later years are inaccessible for privacy reasons. (In addition to the federal censuses, Maine also conducted its own special census in 1837.)
The USGenWeb Census Project is undertaking the task of transcribing the census data from every available Federal census and making it available on the web. For Aroostook County, they currently have the censuses from 1790 to 1850.
Listed here are sites where you can find either scanned images of the actual census records or transcripts of the records. Note: these links are presented as is until they can be verified. Please report any broken links to info@dev.ac-gs.org.
Aroostook County Census Records
- 1820 census of Madawaska Settlement At that time, it was part of Penobscot County, Maine, and York County, New Brunswick. It includes communities on both banks of the Upper St. John River Valley in what are now Aroostook County, Maine, and Madawaska County, New Brunswick.
- 1820 census of Houlton and New Limerick Plantations
- 1830 census of Madawaska Settlement What was part of York County; includes all the communities and settlements along both sides of the St.John River from Van Buren, Maine to the St. Francis River, plus settlements along the Green, Madawaska, and Fish Rivers.
- 1837 state census records
- 1840 federal census records A complete transcription.
- 1850 federal census records A complete transcription.
- 1860 federal census records Complete images online.
Maine Census Records
- Maine census information FamilySearch information about Maine census records with links to search for census images by name. FamilySearch does require creating an account but it is completely free for full access.
- Maine’s special 1837 census