The census was taken on 10 May 1895. The data for the census was originally recorded on a geographical basis, recorded in three Departments - Rawson, Gaiman, and further west at the foothills of the Andes, 16 de Octubre. Records were taken on a section basis within these three Departments, which are listed below.
The names in the census have been changed to an alphabetical listing in this index. Obvious family groupings have not been split up, although servants, farmhands, and other mature workers who seemed to be listed together with the main family, have been listed individually under their own surname - this accounts for quite a few single person entries. References are given for every name (see the last column). For example, B1 refers to those living at the 1st counted household in the B census. It was, however, not always clear from the census who was in a particular household. The reader should go check the searched name under the direct alphabetical listing, and then search the rest of the index to determine who else was living at the counted home. This should also be done to check dependency relationships which are reproduced here from the original census unaltered (for example a child by the name of one father is still recorded with their mother who may have remarried and taken a different surname).
However there are problems with merely finding the names of persons with the same or close reference numbers. For example, it was not always clear from the census if all those recorded as living together actually lived in the same house, or on the same land - there were many single men sharing landhooldings. Census takers did not consistently record where a household started and ended, which poses problems for determining who was living with whom. The reader should beware that there are some duplicate records of the same people (for example, Walter Roberts).
Sometimes the census takers recorded names in English/Welsh, and others converted names to the Spanish equivalent, and there are numerous spelling mistakes of names. Phonetic equivalents of names should also be checked - for example Alsua and Alzua. Lastly, it is not clear what period of the day the census was taken - it could be expected that if the census was taken during the day, that the male head of household could have been on another farm, and hence be recorded away from his normal family grouping.
"?" have been marked against those entries or names which were not clear.
The column headings are explained
below:
| Column 1 | Surname |
| Column 2 | First names |
| Column 3 | Age |
| Column 4 (ST) | Marital status (M = married; S = single; W = widowed) |
| Column 5 (NAT | Nationality. |
| Column 6 | Profession. |
| Column 7 (R/W) | Can the person read and write (Y = yes; N = no) |
| Column 8 (SC) | Is the person going to school (Y = yes; N = no) |
| Column 9 (PR) | Does the person own property/farm (Y = yes; N = no; usually answered only by the male head of household, but some census takers attributed the land holding to each family member) |
| Column 10 (CH) | Number of children (usually only answered by married women) |
| Column 11 (YM) | The number of years married (usually answered only by the female spouse) |
| Column 12 (REF) | Refers to one of the parts of the census, divided up on a geographic basis, as follows |
| A | Argentinian (usually born in Chubut) | L | Bolivian |
| B | British - both English and Welsh | N | Naturalised Argentinian |
| C | Chilean | O | Oriental |
| D | Dutch (Holland) | P | Paraguayan |
| E | Australian | S | Spanish |
| F | |