On Wed, 05 Jun 2013 11:02:56 +0100, roy.stockdill@btinternet.com wrote: >From: Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> > >> On Tue, 04 Jun 2013 11:30:02 +0100, roy.stockdill@btinternet.com wrote: >> >> >Here's a thought that struck me only yesterday when I was doing some research >> >in the US censuses..... >> > >> >People often complain in this country that the census questions get more and >> >more intrusive every decade, though whether there will ever be another one >> >seems to be up in the air at the moment. >> >> I'm curious. >> >> In this forum you usually argue against those who are concerned about >> privacy and pooh-pooh their concerns. >> >> Have you changed your mind?> > >Not in the slightest, Steve! I was merely making the point that I don't >remember any UK census ever asking how much an individual's house was worth and >how much money they had and I was somewhat surprised to find such questions in >an American census in 1860 and 1870. They probably dropped them when they discovered that people routinely lied about them, and regarded assurances that the information would not be shared with tax collectors as so much hogwash. >On the general subject of privacy and intrusion I remain adamant that people >are too precious and paranoid about it. To give an example, my current online >"Famous family trees" blog at Findmypast is about the ancestry of the actor >Michael Kitchen, who is quite brilliant in my opinion as Detective >Superintendent Christopher Foyle in Foyle's War. It was entirely accurate and >largely innocuous but I was actually verbally attacked, would you believe, by >some members of his fan club who have set up a website devoted to him. They >thought I shouldn't have done his ancestry because apparently he is very >private and never gives interviews, etc. The irony and incongruity of being >obsessive fans to the extent of establishing a website to talk about him seems >to have escaped them utterly! Kitchen himself has made no complaint but some of >these silly people thought they had the right to complain on his behalf. There >are some very strange people about! "Foyles War" was one of the very few TV series I've ever watched. I haven't watched the latest series, but I believe there are some anachronisms in it. -- Steve Hayes Web: http://hayesgreene.wordpress.com/ http://hayesgreene.blogspot.com http://groups.yahoo.com/group/afgen/