Dear List Members: I recently passed along the following information to another list discussing finding families listed more than once. I thought others might find the information useful, too. I apologize if you receive multiple copies from multiple lists to which you (and I) subscribe. Even though I've been reading census reports for over 10 years, I found reviewing these notes about census data very useful in possibly explaining what seems to be data discrepancies. In one of the recent Rootsweb "ezine" articles (Rootsweb Review, May 28, 2003, Vol. 6, No. 22, publ. by Myra Gormley) there was a brief article about census information and a link to an overview about using US official census dates for each of the census years. (Overall, the web page had a lot of good information and reminders about finding and using census data.) The URL: http://rwguide.rootsweb.com/lesson9.htm The page includes links to related US census pages as well as links to census information for England, Canada, Russian Mennonites (!), and Norway. The editors remind readers that census takers were instructed to record information based on the "official" census dates, not necessarily on the enumeration date. (Dates shown below.) You may be lucky, and your family may never had any geographic moves, births, deaths or marriages around census time. For you, there probably wouldn't be any differences, regardless of the official or enumeration dates. However, it seems to me that a family could be residing in one location on the "official" date, and residing in another place on the enumeration date. It also means a person actually deceased on the enumeration date might be shown residing in a family if the census taker followed instructions! (Makes your head spin with possibilities, doesn't it?!) How closely the census takers followed instructions is a whole other issue!! "Official" census dates: >From RootsWeb Review, May 28, 2003, Vol. 6, No. 22 Editor: Myra Vanderpool Gormley, Certified Genealogist [Editor's Note: U.S. enumerators were instructed to take down the names of the family as it was composed on the OFFICIAL DATE of the census -- not the day of the actual visit. Official census dates were: --First Monday in August for 1790-1820 schedules --June 1 for 1830-1880 --First Monday in June for 1890 (most of this schedule was destroyed or     badly damaged by a fire in 1921 --June 1 for 1900 --April 15 for 1910 --January 1 for 1920 --April 1 for 1930 I have decided to go back to my census source data and include the applicable official census dates next to the enumeration dates. I may be lucky, and there may not be any apparent information discrepancies related to my families. I may need to remember those official dates, however, when something seems "off." I linked to Ancestry.com's information on each of the US census years. There is more information about specific census years and the taking of the census. For example, under the 1790 census: http://www.ancestry.com/library/view/news/articles/1260.asp 1790 Census The 1790 census was begun on 2 August 1790. The marshals were expected to finish the census within nine months of the Census Day—by 1 May 1791. Although most of the returns were in long before the deadline, Congress had to extend the count until 1 March 1792. By that time some people probably were counted who had not been born or present in 1790. (There is more information on the page; I didn't copy it all.) >From the URL shown for the 1790 census (above) is a list of links to information for the other census years. If nothing else, these pages reminded me not to always accept that census data at face value. Hope you find the reminders equally helpful. Cornelia Andrus