Recently, someone asked me whether the 1850 Federal Census was taken for San Francisco. At the time, I knew it was unavailable and vaguely recalled that it was "lost." So, what did "lost" mean? When and where did we lose it? No, I don't have the answer yet. I am still searching. Maybe someone, somewhere, has seen an answer or has a lead they can share. So, here's the story. Supposedly, the Contra Costa, San Francisco, and Santa Clara census returns for 1850 do not exist. But, we have population figures from them, so they were taken. As I am primarily interested in San Francisco, I initially contacted the following agencies to see if anyone had an answer for SF: U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. National Archives, California State Archives, California Department of Finanace, California State Libraries-Sacramento and Sutro, and the San Francisco Public Library-History Room. For Santa Clara County, I contacted the San Jose/Martin Luther King Jr. Library-California Room. The only information they have is that the census was destroyed in a fire, time and place unknown. But, it wasn't in the same one that caused the 1921 loss of the 1890 records. <http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/spring_1996_1890_census_1.html> Thus, I have resorted to looking in the newspapers. So far, I have found three interesting articles. The first is from the Daily Alta California (18 Apr 1851) that publishes the statement from the U.S. Census Agent's Office in Sacramento stating that the census was actually taken <http://www.sfgenealogy.com/sf/history/hgoe19.htm>. The next is another article from the Daily Alta California (20 Apr 1851) that mentions all the census returns have been collected except for Los Angeles, San Diego and Tuolumne Counties <http://www.sfgenealogy.com/sf/history/hgoe20.htm>. The last article is from the San Francisco Chronicle (26 March 1950) which states that "The census was taken here [San Francisco], all right, but the records were burned in one of the many fires that leveled the early city of wooden shacks." Where the Chroncle got their information, I don't know. Maybe they presumed it was one of the early "great fires" of 1850/51. So, there are some unanswered questions. Why were only these three counties lost? Were the returns in San Francisco at the time? Why? The U.S. Census office was in Sacramento. Was there a fire there that resulted in the loss? Was it lost in transit back to Washington? As some of you may or may not be aware, there was major population shifting going on that year. Something to do with a predilection for some shiny metal. The local authorities were not too happy with the numbers that were appearing (which seems to happen every time the figures from a new census is published). Basically, that they didn't accurately reflect what they thought were more realistic figures. Thus, that belief resulted in the State census of 1852. The bottom line is I have yet to find an answer to what happened to these returns. Where they actually lost in a fire? Was it an accident? Are they collecting dust in some Sacramento basement (maybe Johnson's)? Are they "misplaced" in some complex in Washington? Were they possibly "misplaced" by local politicians? As a side note, the census taker, J. Neely Johnson was an interesting character. Besides being a Colonel, he fought in local indian wars, was a lawyer, a California governor between 1855 and 1858, and a justice of the Supreme Court of Nevada. Regards, Ron Filion San Francisco