And just to add to Carolyn's very vivid and realistic tale of census
taking in the old days, I've found several instances - all in NC, but
I'm sure it happened elsewhere - where one household was counted twice
in a particular county and census year, and in each case without
identical enumeration of the family (these were all pre-1850).  It
took a lot of time and effort to figure those out...

Lou Poole

-----Original Message-----
From: Research and writing about Virginia genealogy and family
history. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Carolyn M.
Getting
Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 1:27 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
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.  

<snip>

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