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