U.S. Census records showing who lived in Centre County are an excellent tool for the genealogist.
1930 CENSUS ONLINE INDEX This joint effort between this Centre Co., Pa., site of the USGenWeb Project and the Centre County Genealogical Society created an index to the county's part of the 1930 U.S. Census -- which has no Soundex or Miracode index available as with the 1880, 1900, 1910 and 1920 U.S. censuses. Click on this link for an outline of the 1930 Enumeration Districts within Centre County to facilitate your being able to locate folks within the larger collection of actual census records. We are grateful to more than two dozen folks who helped to make this index possible by volunteering their time. If you would like to know more about the transcription effort, please contact Bob.
We also are grateful to John Mort who has made some North Central Pennsylvania census records available through his databank of Census Records for all to see. This is a growing list transcribed from the U.S. Census Records 1850-1880, 1900 and 1910.
Centre County's 1890 Census which has survived in the form of a business directory, can be seen in a transcribed version that arranges the names in alphabetical order by township/borough at the Pennsylvania Room of the Centre County Library and Historical Museum in Bellefonte, on microfilm in Penn State's Pattee Library microforms department, or online through Penn State's PA's Past: Digital Bookshelf. It serves as the basis for the surnames found in Centre Lines. The business directory was re-compiled with an index in 1998 and published as Eleventh Census of the Population of the United States Published by Boroughs and Townships in Connection with a Business Directory of the Same. It can be purchased (for $27 or $30, if shipped) from the Friends of the Centre County Library and Historical Museum, 203 N. Allegheny Street, Bellefonte, PA 16823.
To see what census transcriptions might be online for Centre and other counties in Pennsylvania, check The USGenWeb Census Project for Pennsylvania.
In addition, Penn State has on microfilm all extant U.S. Census records for Pennsylvania, 1790-1930, as well as soundex indexes for the years 1880, 1900, 1910 and 1920. Penn State also has statewide indexes for the years 1800 to 1870.
The Centre County Library in Bellefonte also has census records for most central Pennsylvania counties from 1790 through 1930, as well as all available statewide indexes and a separate index for the Centre County residents of 1860. In addition, the library also has the U.S. Census for 1880 of the entire country on compact disc.
The LDS Family History Center in State College also has census records for many central Pennsylvania counties through 1930.
Schlow Library in State College also has access to Ancestry.com's database of digitized images of all census records through what is known as AncestryPlus which can be accessed only on the Library's premises during its regular hours.