True. Not much real useful information was found until the 1850s census, though some states conducted their own. Ancestry.com is my second home on the Net.
I’ve traced some branches of family to the early 1600s and discovered many ancestors who fought for the Rev. war and the CSA.
The state cenuses are every 10 years, on the years ending in 5. 1905, 1915, 1925 etc.
I have been doing genealogy for 17 years. I started before internet access and before a lot of this could be obtained online.
I am currently indexing for the FHL...I did a little for ancestry, too.