Many, if not most of you have used the 1880/1881 Census indices at
the LDS site,
familysearch.org. Two-line URL to the Census:
http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/frameset_search.asp?PAGE=census
/search_census.asp
If this link does not work for you, there is a link to the Census
search page on the main page,
http://www.familysearch.org/
I find myself going back quite often, when I discover a new sibling
name, or something. But how well do you use the search engine?
Rootsweb Review had a small article about a wonderful page explaining
some tips and tricks to optimize your results:
http://www.tedpack.org/lds1880.html
I especially like that the search engine automatically assumes that
you want a Soundex search, but that you can easily restrict your
searches to exact spelling. It is worth noting that while you can
restrict your search by birthplace, I have noticed that this data
often varies from census year to census year. So if you are searching
for an emigrant, you will only want to narrow the search by using
this parameter as your last choice. One nice feature, however, is
that notations such as "WURT" are all classified as Germany. I have
not tested this for counties and regions of other countries.
Of course, once you find your family in this index, to do thorough
research you will want to locate them in the actual census record,
but that is made much easier with the film and page numbers. Both
National Archives & LDS Family History Library film numbers are
given. If you are using the FamilySearch index to find the images on
Ancestry.com, here's an article to help you make that jump:
http://www.ancestry.com/library/view/columns/compass/4027.asp
I hope that this information is helpful to you,
Valorie