People also start to forget the older they get and the farther they get from an event. I know how that is when it comes to remembering a year in which I did something. My gggrandparents said they came in 1874 and their daughter claimed 1873 (but she would only have been 2-3 years old) on a census close to that year. But much later, they said 1879. I also notice that they will say they were naturalized the same year they put for arriving in this country. I am pretty sure they must be thinking of their declaration, since I understand that you had to wait a couple of years after the declaration before you could sign naturalization papers. I also think the census taker often just filled in columns like the latter one for naturalization, and the one for how many children a woman had borne. I have a couple where the earlier census claimed more pregnancies than the next census. One had one child and one pregnancy and tere were three other live children! So I figure the mother didn't tell them one and one. These little things can make it hard sometimes to be sure we have the same person on a census, especially when they suddenly use their other name. Ceal Atlanta ----- Original Message ----- From: <Elangreen@aol.com> To: <BAVARIA-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, December 07, 1999 1845 PM Subject: [BAVARIA] Wurzbacher > The country of origin and date of immigration given in the census is not > necessarily correct. You don't know who in the household was giving the > information. If an ancestor arrived in America at a young age, he may not > remember accurately where he was born or when he arrived. Also, many of our > ancestors were illiterate. > > My greatgrandmother said she was from Hesse, Baden, and Bavaria in three > different census. Turns out she was from the Black Forest in Baden. > > Elenora Green > > > > > Elenora Green > > > ==== BAVARIA Mailing List ==== > Sister or Brother, > Can you spare $10 dollars to support Rootsweb? > http://www.rootsweb.com/rootsweb/how-to-subscribe.html#personal >