In a message dated 98-12-13 18:46:37 EST, judithaw@gte.net (Judith Allison Walters) wrote: << I do census research once a week at a branch of the National Archives. There are only about 12 of them in the country. How people get at census records unless they live near a branch, I don't know. >> For Pat and Judith, There are several places you can get census records for use by individuals. The National Archives has a Microfilm Rental Program which you can write to at PO Box 30, Annapolis Junction, MD 20701-0030 or call 301-604-3699 (this # was good a few years ago, but the area code may have changed - you might want to check). There are also 6000 local libraries that use inter-library loan and participate in the microfilm rental program, so there may be one near you. Also try the following URL: The Federal Population Censuses on Microfilm http://www.nara.gov/publications/microfilm/census/census.html As Judith said, Family History Centers will usually order census microfilm for you, as well. In addition, there are several places you can purchase microfilm for relatively minor amounts. I can't find the e-address right now, but there's one place that sells census film for $7.50 a roll and guarantees it, I believe. As soon as I can find the address, I'll post it. $7.50 is a real bargain, but $10 is about standard if you catch a sale. One Christmas my husband and I exchanged all the Census records for our "Home" counties and the total cost was $130 each, I think. If you check at your local library, they may have a genealogy room and it may include census microfilm from the surrounding area plus (if you're lucky) film from the areas known to have produced the early settlers in the area. And of course there's one more great resource for census, and that's the internet. Census images have been uploaded to the USGenWeb Archives and can be found by going to the county table of contents at <http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb> or by going directly to the appropriate archive_html directory, for example: <http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/ss/cccccccc/census>. Hope some of this will help, Sally CBAUGHN@aol.com