I agree, my Father did two censuses in the 1960's and he used to say about how daft the people were. They didn't know how to fill the forms in, or what information was needed. AND he said about the hand writing - you couldn't read half of it. He also said that they said to him, what good is the information - NOBODY WILL SEE IT AND IT DOESN'T MATTER. OH dear, if only they had known!!!!!!!!!! Diane Sowden UK ----- Original Message ----- From: <K1ark@aol.com> To: <ENG-DURHAM-YORKS-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, March 07, 2003 3:20 PM Subject: Re: [D'hamYorks] Fwd: A little Off-topic !! > Don't know how it works your side, but it was a real eye-opener for me when I worked on the 2000 US census. It is, first of all, a massive administrative undertaking - just setting up offices to co-ordinate the process and then digest the data required small armies of people. A major task (the one I was involved with) is then training those who will go out to knock on doors and ask questions. Though the vast majority of people I worked with were conscientious and most were capable, since this job(and all the others)are both temporary and relatively low-paying, some portion of those involved may be (shall we say) less dedicated and precise or less literate and mentally nimble. > Then there are the complexities of the data gathering instrument - what may seem fairly straightforward to those of us of the "information" age may have been, to our ancestors, the equivalent to questions like "Do you and all inhabitants of this home reside at this address for more than 50% any given calendar year?" > And then of course there's the handwriting - but that's another story. So consider the census workers and their incredibly valuable contribution to our endeavours. I say all praise to them. Dave Moore, Webater, New York > > > ==== ENG-DURHAM-YORKS Mailing List ==== > NO Virus warnings, seasonal greetings or private 'chit-chat' on this > list, okay! Other than that, anything pertaining to the lives and times > of those we seek goes, but MUST be kept within the *List's Golden Rule*. > > ============================== > To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 > >