With this being the year of the census, it started me to thinking. In the year 2080 this information will become available for public viewing. I hope when the census takers come around to your house, that you will give them acurate information about the people living in your house. That is, the correct names, ages, and places of birth. That info will be a valuable tool to a geanelogist that is fighting to finish filling out thier ancestry.
As far as the census of the 1900's, go, they alot of time were filled with incorrect information. From one census to the next, people would change thier names, or lie about thier age. This would naturally confuse someone looking for where a person was at a given time. I'm sure that when they gave the census taker the information, they never realized 70 years later one of thier decendants would be searching the records trying to make sense out of what little info they have.
One of the great problems with genealogy, is that when a person is young, they are not interested in asking their grandparents questions about thier ancesters, and then when they have grown old, THERE IS NO ONE TO ASK.
Ask your questions now so that won't happen to you.
2 comments:
Ginger is very familiar with the problem with names ages and dates of birth. Besides lying, many people were illiterate and seldom signed their names and would change the spelling from one census to the next. Rest assured, we will give our correct names, date of birth and current residence. After that I may have to think about it.
Dave Compton
Dave, I was surprised at the questions ask. Nothing real personal that I minded answering. They in the past have wanted to know such things as your worth in dollar amounts.
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