> You must be thinking of the annual school censuses that some > city/county school districts conduct. These are a relatively recent > creation and as such would likely NOT be public information as to > personal information Despite all our talk about different types of censuses, I had forgotten about the school census. There ARE some very useful old ones, although I have absolutely no idea how widespread they were or how many have survived. One of my families homesteaded in Harlan County, Nebraska, in the 1870s. By writing to the county clerk, we found two school censuses taken in that decade that listed the names and ages of the school kids in our family. That was mildly interesting, but the REALLY useful, Methods-y benefit, was that the name of the school appeared on the form. These were all small "Little House on the Prairie" type schools in tiny communities that no longer appear on the map. We wrote to the county clerk a second time asking for help in locating the school on a modern map. The clerk handed our letter to a genealogically-minded woman who said that while the community no longer existed, there was an old cemetery by that name. She and her husband took it on themselves to drive out to the prairie cemetery, dig down to half-buried stones and turn over the fallen ones until they found the grave marker of a child in our family. That marker and the listing on the school census are our only documentation for that child. Anecdotes aside, please know that there ARE school censuses and perhaps other specialized local records that are worth checking. It's worth visiting or writing local organizations -- I live near Salt Lake and work in the great library there several days a week, and I have to remind myself constantly that there are so many records that are not in the library. And there are wonderful people out there who occasionally go the third and fourth mile to help complete strangers. Ardis Parshall AEParshall@aol.com