Census records often include helpful details about your ancestors and their families and allow you to pinpoint their location at a particular point in time. The most current census available is 1950.
Look for additional schedules to the decennial census. Mortality Schedules (FamilySearch.org, 1850 only; and Ancestry.com) identify who died in the twelve months prior to the census taking. These are available for the 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880 census. Slave Schedules identify slave owner names and residences, the number of slaves, sex, race, and age. Slave names not normally provided. Additionally, please keep in mind that the 1890 census was destroyed by fire in 1921 and only very few pages remain for select states.