I think Susan said in her first post that she had already done an unsuccessful linesearch among the associates and relatives of her ancestor, and was asking what the chances were of the 1860 census itself (not the ancestry.com index) being incomplete. Because the 1850, 1860 and 1870 censuses had to be copied at least three times, the chances for errors and dropouts is high - calculated to be more than 10%. It was also a more complicated form than previously, giving even more chance for errors and omissions. Here's a link with more: http://genealogyblog.com/census-by-dollarhide/compare-a-county-copy-and-a-federal-copy-of-the-1860-census-online-4492 Jan Hall [email protected]

> I think Susan said in her first post that she had already done an > unsuccessful linesearch among the associates and relatives of her > ancestor, and was asking what the chances were of the 1860 census > itself (not the ancestry.com index) being incomplete. > > [email protected] Susan did specifically ask about the index. The three questions she ended her original posting were: "So a few questions: what percentage of people might have been missed by the 1860 census takers? On the chance he was no longer in the area, what percentage of people are omitted in ancestry.com's index? Any clues on how to proceed?" Since not being able to find someone in a census is as much an index issue as a census or transcription issue, it only makes sense to address it, too. LGO LGO <[email protected]>