I thought I read there was a small fire which was extinguished leaving some (but not all) of the 1890 Census water damaged. A junior bureacrat named J. Edgar Hoover ordered the entire 1890 Census destroyed. It is perhaps pertinent to remember the Eugenics movement was getting started and the "one drop" laws were being enacted. It is rumored that Hoover had black blood on his father's side (who was also a career government bureacrat). The 1890 Census would have been a critical Census for "deleting" or changing one's heritage. This leaves Hoover with both motive and opportunity...but there's no proof. Interesting possibility though. ~malinda Hi y'all, The 1890 U.S. census was NOT distroyed in a fire! In 1921 there was a fire in the same building that housed the U.S. census, the Commerce Building. The 1890 U.S. census was damaged by the water used to extinguish the fire. In 1933 the U.S. Congress authorized the distruction of the 1890 U.S. census. And in 1935 it was distroyed by the Department of Commerce. In 1942 some schedules from Illinois were discovered to have survived. And in 1953 a few scattered schedules from various counties in various states were found. The Fate of the 1890 Population Census: http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/spring_1996_1890_census_1.html Bill Allen "Betty A. Pace" wrote: > Louise, > Where are the 1890 census records for veterans now? Do you know if the > LDS has filmed the records? > Betty Pace > > From: Louise Donnell > To: NCGUILFO-L@rootsweb.com > Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2003 08:10:44 -0800 (PST) > Subject: [NCGuilford] Most of 1890 Census records burned > Alas and alack, almost all U.S historians and > genealogists wish that fire had not consumed the 1890 > Census records. Only parts of the 1890 census of war > veterans has survived because those records were > stored at a separate location. If your forebearer was > a veteran, you might get lucky. > > Louise Donnell > Austin, TX ============================== To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237