On Wednesday, April 17,2002 someone by the moniker of <<maclewis@prodigy.net>> covered your question nicely. I was going thru my "piles" of info today and found that e-mail because I thought it was an important piece of information. To quote: " The census day was NOT the day the enumerator arrived at the household,it was the day for which all the statistics of the census were collected." census day 1850 census 1 June 5 months (to take the census) 1860 census 1 June 5 months 1870 census 1June 5 months " 1880 census 1 June 1 month There is more to the e-mail but this answers your question, I think. LoisZ