My Dad was a census taker in 1950. People lied about their childrens age
because they used the census for drafting so they felt it kept their
children from being drafted. He use to trick them up on their ages by
saying "I know you aren't 21 you don't look old enough to shave" and at that
time the ego of the boys they would step up and say "I have you know I am 21
or what ever their actual age was". Dad would come home laughing about the
tricks he pulled.
----- Original Message -----
From: "KAREN DALE" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 5:12 PM
Subject: Re: [VA-ROOTS] Census takers of old
My theory is that they were offered a little refreshment at each stop--and
by the end of the day were so snockered nothing mattered.
----- Original Message -----
From: Carolyn M. Getting<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 11:27 AM
Subject: Re: [VA-ROOTS] Census takers of old
With this year being a census year, the census takers of old come to mind.
They went over hill and
dale to get their information. Some of the incorrect years of birth I've
run into, I've come up
with at least one scenario of how they could have happened as well as
incorrect names and family
members being left out.
You're a census taker and you've had a long day. You need to complete a
certain area of the
countryside and that last family lives up a tall hill across a valley from
where you are.
You ask their nearest neighbor whom you've just finished getting
information from, about the family.
Yes, they know the family well. They names are, such & such, he owns his
own land and is a farmer.
They have X number of kids. All the time the census taker is writing down
this info so he doesn't
have to go up the hill. The census taker asks the name of the kids and
their ages and writes down
that information. He get the ages of the parents and where they were all
born.
Now in the earlier census years they did not require as much information
as they do now or have done
in certain years. So in 1850 he would have been finished with that family
up the hill or so he
thought.
Sometimes when I've found information that was incorrect such as age,
names and places they were
born and or information on the parents of the named person in the census,
I can also imagine that at
times the information came from a member of the family that didn't know or
remember, and perhaps
this was actually true of the named person not remembering.
Also, have you not every written down something different that what you
were told, because you heard
it a certain way? It's kinda like misspeaking. There were probably cases
of incorrect information
given in order to hide from officials.
Records and record keeping is very interesting to say the least, and we're
not even addressing the
strange penmanship of some of the record keepers. Then with typewriters
we have the typos.
So it is, and we go on loving the challenge, to find that elusive
ancestor, like hunting of treasure
and because they were people and they mattered.
God bless.
Carolyn,
just an old Texas Gal.
Life is like pouring water into a Coke bottle. If you're the least bit
scared, you can't do it.
Researching:
Knight/Byles/Walton/Espy/Smith/Little/Marshall/
Waters/Garner/Martin/Foote/Berryman/Colclough/
Rogers/Grigsby/Blanton/Tate/McGuffey/Hobbs/
Schuenemann/Latinsky/Altman/Gambel/Sinz & Gross
WebSite:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~cgetting/<http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~cgetting/>
WebSite:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~cgetting/familygroups/<http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~cgetting/familygroups/>
To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
at
http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-roots.html<http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-roots.html>
To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at
http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-roots.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 9.0.819 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/2892 - Release Date: 05/23/10
14:26:00
To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at
http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-roots.html
|
