The 1925 Iowa State Census contains the names of parents for every person enumerated. It is probably the best state census ever taken in the United States. The FamilySearch website recently updated or added an index to this unique state census, making it available for users at no charge.  The image shown below is part of the enumeration for George A. Freund of Davenport, Iowa. His wife’s name (not shown in this image and the mother of his sons Paul and George H.) is Kate Cawiezell. Fortunately the handwriting in this section of Davenport is pretty good. Searches should not be difficult.

However…

FamilySearch only allows searches of this database based on the actual living people enumerated in the census, not the names of any of the parents. At least a search based upon the names of parents did not work for me on FamilySeearch when I searched for Kate Cawiezell. Ancestry.com has the same census on their website with a search interface that does allow for searches based on the names of parents. In this case a search for Kate Cawiezell as a mother didn’t turn up any unexpected surprises. But there are a few families where I would like to search this 1925 census based on the names of the parents–in an attempt to locate “missing children.”

 

I can perform those searches at Ancestry.com. I can’t perform them at FamilySearch. 

An informed user is a more effective user.