>Hello all, >Just wanted to add my two cents to this discussion (these folks are also >in my line). Caroline was a Moore before her first marriage to Henry W >Hager of Tazewell Co. On the same 1870 Smyth Co census one of her >sisters' occuption is listed as "keeps a bawdy house". And a cousin in >same house is listed as "housekeeper in bawdy house". I think that the >census taker was probably a real "moral" man and these were his >comments/impressions of these women. Although, there must have been >some truth to the statements for him to have mentioned them at all. There is no reason to suppose that the census taker disapproved of the occupations he was putting down. "Keeps a bawdy house" is a pretty tame entry. I've also seen "prostitute" and "whore" in censuses. I think the enumerators were trained to put down the occupation as accurately as they could. There is not necessarily any judgement implied. Nowadays, of course, most people fill out their own census forms. So they are free to lie about their occupations if they aren't proud of them. (Probably not too many census entries will record an occupation as a 'thief', 'hit man' or 'drug dealer'.) -- Teri