Hi Dennis, Also to the lists near and in New York City Your suggestions are taken in the form of giving that I expect they were offered. I would not have written had I not exhausted all the other leads. I have the index for 1860 the person I am searching for in NYC is listed there as James A. Woods. I have spent enough in CAPITAL LETTERS ordering films from here, there, traveling across town, to the next town and over 500 miles one way to the nearest NARA in Seattle. For the time being I am exhausted and just want to stay home working in my garden. All I wanted when I wrote the original message to the list was to contact someone with the Census in their hands. You cannot tell me that there isn't somebody out there who does not have it. For the US Census of 1870, there is no index to the area I am searching. The same is true of the US Census for 1880 unless you had a child under the age of 10. So unless there were additional children which my grandmother does not ever mention the parents had no more in their family or she is the youngest this takes into account that she might also be the only child too. Something happened between 1870 and 1880 as the person I am seeking in listed in the Mount Vernon area of East Chester Township, Westchester County, New York. In 1949 James is listed as Woods but the daughter is listed as Wood. Miss Wood married Samuel F.(Irish for Phayre) Smith in 1884 or 1885. Their children applied for Social Security cards using her name spelled Wood. We know that James married a woman named Marie Lewis from the Channel Island of Guernsey. I suspect that she came as a child in a family making her birth about 1830 probably but not to much earlier. James A. was born in New York Because of the questions and the search you suggest I am resubmitting this query back to the main list for their consideration. Daniel Blue River on McKenzie in Lane County, Oregon "Dennis J. Smith" wrote: > I saw your query on the New York mailing list. Here is hopefully some > useful information. > > A description of the US Census and its indexes can be found at the > National Archives Web site > <http://www.nara.gov/genealogy/microcen.html>. > > You did not indicate where you live but there is a chance that you live > near one of the 13 branches of the U.S. National Archives and Records > Administration (NARA). They are listed on NARA's Web site at: > http://www.nara.gov/regional/nrmenu.html > > As far as being on the Internet, you're out of luck - none of the US > censuses have come online as yet. There are commercial firms putting the > census onto CD-ROMs but nothing yet on the Internet. > > Your best bet is to rent the microfilm via the National Archives. Check > out the rental program at: > http://www.nara.gov/publications/microfilm/micrent.html > > or, > Heritage Quest's Microfilm purchase/rental program: > http://www.heritagequest.com/genealogy/microfilm/ > > The 1890 U.S. Census was lost in a fire in Washington, D.C. You'll find > the full story at the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration > (NARA) "First in the Path of the Firemen" - The Fate of the 1890 > Population Census: > http://www.nara.gov/publications/prologue/1890cen1.html > > Hope this helps. > ------------------------ > Dennis J. Smith <djsmith@capital.net> > Schenectady, NY, USA