It may well to remember that sometimes the enumerator assigned assistants an
area to cover and then consolidated these smaller lists, thus sometimes
throwing off what would appear to be a neighbor. I have seen what I know to
be neighbors in actuality ,appear several days apart on the list with folks
who are not actual neighbors appear between the two. Plus one could go down
one road , path, weave thru trails, etc and then back the other side so to
speak and what would appear to be  house  #10  ten houses after house#1 when
in fact house #10 is just across  the road, filed, etc from house #1 and a
closer neighbor to # 1 than say # 5 is.
I have seen a known neighbor to an ancestor move either farther apart or
closer to this known ancestor  from census to census per the list. They had
not physically moved, it was just the way the enumerator went about the job.
In addition to the neighbor business, it is well to remember that the mother
or father may not be in the house at time the enumerator comes by. It could
be the mother or father in law, the eldest  child of responible age, etc. and
that can explain why a child does not always age 10 years between censuses
and why the place of birth can change.
Its a good guide. Test against other info.

Jim

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