Ivan, Here's what "North Carolina Research: Genealogy and Local History" (2nd ed.) says about it: "Although the original schedules were ultimately intended for federal authorities, enumerators in some census years prepared duplicate copies for state and county use. Especially for the four censuses of 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880, the researcher may find federal, state, and county copies of the schedules...these copies frequently differ from each other in small particulars, and occasionally in major ones. Researchers should examine all copies that survive and make close comparisons; it cannot be assumed that the federal copy was the first, most accurate one written." So yes, it is good to compare. Since the author of the above paragraph states the researcher *may* find other schedules, it appears that whether or not they still exist might depend on several factors. I only have the federal schedules and so that's what I could give Audrey. The above book states that the N.C. State Archives has bound duplicate originals of most of the state's 1850-1880 schedules. As for county level ones, whether or not they exist would probably vary from county to county and depend on things like courthouse fires etc. Hope this helps, Traci _____________________________________________________________________ From: "BartowRich" <BartowRich@email.msn.com> Traci, I read somewhere the census takers had a field copy they worked with each day that had all the information on it. They would then make a copy for the census bureau, a copy for the state and a copy for the county. Often the copy that had only initals was not the original for the census bureau but the only one surviving which could have been the local copy that was posted in each county. Have you ever seen any thing to verify this? Ivan Richardsonm _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com