ONE of these two lists recently had quite a discussion about the Census, people complaining about invasions of their privacy, etc. I apologize to whichever list this WASN'T. I think people have forgotten to appreciate what our ancestors did for us by filling out the census! We owe all sorts of things to ancestors who had enough foresight and the sense of responsibility to others to provide information about themselves and to preserve information for the future. People seem to have lost sight of the fact that one day our descendants will be trying to find any sort of basic information about us, from who we were, where we went, where and when we were born, to what we were and what were our occupations. People fussing over telling the census details about their finances. But haven't all of us been proud and pleased to learn the same details of our ancestors' lives from census and tax data? Some people still have to actually fight just for the priviledge of being able to tell the census department our race, date of birth, and how we pay for housing. Below is the fight I just went through to fill out a form in which I listed my name, address, phone number, age, date of birth, I'm not Hispanic, I am Caucasian, and I pay cash rent for my living quarters. I had to fill out a "Be Counted" form for the people the Census misses. If anyone on these lists for whatever reason doesn't get a census form, request a form D-10, "Be Counted" form from your local census office. College students living in dorms are counted as residents of that place and explicitly excluded from being counted as members of their parents' households. The first person to tell me of the existence of such a form as this was a census representative sitting at a table in front of a library on Austin's University of Texas campus. Warning: people in any census office are probably currently the most confused people in the country when it comes to any question to do with the census, if you can even get through to a living human being on the phone; according to a recent USA Today article most people with genuine questions and problems can't get through because of the number of people calling to argue about the Census itself. I got as far as I did by giving up and walking in to the main office in the Federal Building in Austin. Those people even more confused - though brighter than the people I spoke to on the phone, and too busy to get my problem to my local area supervisor who could have solved my problem. I finally called my Congressman's office and had to detail the steps I'd already taken. They put me through to the director's office, who sent me the "Be Counted" forms - so don't give up until you get the form. U. S. Department of Commerce Bureau of the Census National Processing Center Jeffersonville IN 47190-4444 Sir/ Madame: I rent a room by the month from a landlord who rents out rooms to seven unrelated people at this address. We have individual leases with him. We are seven separate households; we do not share expenses at all. We do share the above address; our rooms do not have individual unit numbers. Noone in this household received anything from the Census Department, except our landlord, Paul Terry Walhus, who did receive something from you, according to a housemate. It is possible that you think that Paul Walhus alone lives here, but Paul Walhus does not live here at all; atleast, he does not stay here at all and currently has no space of his own here - though, a roving "ex"-hippie of seeming no fixed abode, he would tell you he lives at each of three of the four properties he owns in Austin and two neighboring towns. We at this house think he spends most of his time at his house (that is, house he owns where he rents out rooms) in Bastrop. Possibly the census form was addressed to Paul Walhus as the supposed resident of this house, and if so he may even have completed and returned it with his own information on it. If it was Paul's responsibility as landlord to fill out our information on his census form he got for this house, or to have us do it, he can be pretty well counted on to not do it; Paul is perpetually spaced out, he hasn't computed or billed us for the household utility bills in two and a half months, and presumably not paid them either, since he is in serious financial crisis; it took him months to get us room and house keys after promising to do it, I don't have the key to the front door yet, not that anyone locks the doors to the house (if one of your enumerators came to check, she could walk right in), you get the idea. If he did put the form out for us to complete, another ex-hippy who lives here who is seriously a bit loony would have been likely to have eaten it - which means it could be he did so, and she did away with it! If by chance Paul DID complete the census form in our names, he couldn't possibly have done so accurately since he wouldn't know the correct answers. If he reported me to the Census, I need to complete another report anyway. How are my sister's descendants going to find me in the census if it doesn't have my correct age OR date of birth? (It would have been nice if you'd asked for PLACE of birth... ) I went to the local Census office and got only a runaround; they did not seem to know what to do in this situation, they felt I should wait until July until the Census department realizes it doesn't have forms from people it doesn't likely know live here, at which time I plan to be no longer at this address but somewhere else where the more stable people who live there already completed and returned their census form. A woman who promised to give my information to my local field director and put me in touch with that person seemed perpetually to never get around to doing it. My Congressman's office put me in touch with the local census director, Dennis Orr, who sent me seven "Be Counted" forms; I have duly distributed them to the places where each of my housemates receive their mail. But there are some odd people living here, and they may or may not all return those forms. In fact, if a census enumerator were to visit here, she might get sent away or lied to about who lives here or the nature of this house. Since I am not often home, she would have been unlikely to find me. I have filled out my form for myself only, as Mr. Orr directed me. But I'd hate to see the Census Department forever unaware of who else lives here. I am extensively using census records to trace my own genealogy. Because I am specifically tracing a strong family history on both sides of manic depression and other mood and anxiety disorders, now known to be variously fully to partially genetic, and I and distant cousins working on the same lines have learned some of our most critical information by tracing families that broke down and people who never did very well or whose lives showed signs of serious problems, I am particularly aware of the importance of the sorts of people who live at 9011 Quail Creek Drive being included in the Census. Perhaps it is teh only way descendants of some of the people who live here will ever put together important family history. Therefore, I want to atleast make you aware of who else lives at 9011 Quail Creek Drive, to record or follow up on as you think best. I warn you; doing nothing about it at all would be a very good way to miss counting these people. John Willis - single employed young adult approximately in his twenties, white. Dean La Pointe, a retired male approximately in his 60's or early 70's, employed, white. Tony Pak, an employed Oriental male I'd say around thirty, give or take a few years. His proper name is Tae ___ Pak. I do not know if he was born in this country. I do not know if he is a U.S. citizen, though I'd say he has lived here for some time and completed part of his education here, and he appears well educated. He does have an Oriental accent, not thick, and Oriental ways about him - which suggests he was not born in this country. Jane Gallion - a white woman, I'd say atleast a college education or equivalent, approximately in her 50's, has either three or four grown children, atleast one of whom lives in Austin. She has lived in L.A. and West Virginia and possibly elsewhere. She says she raised her children in a backwoods cabin in West Virginia with no electricity or running water, and as a hippie in Los Angeles, at the time of Woodstock, "while watching my best friends get shot", and in communes; I do not know if Gallion is her maiden name. It is the same name she had in Los Angeles; she published two books there in 1969 and 1970: "Bike" (fiction) and "Woman as Nigger" (social commentary), as well as a considerable amount of street poetry. . She is employed full time, at some sort of office work for a temporary agency. Jane is the one who is distinctly a bit loony. "Jason V" - new tenant. He rented a room a day or two ago, lives here as of 4/1, and I haven't yet met him. Jason _____. Not the same person. He has lived here for a month. He is about in his twenties, single, as far as I know, and employed. Jason V. replaces Sandra Dowd, a white woman approximately in her 50's, retired art professor, runs a small business of her own, possibly real estate; she also paints. She moved out of 9011 Quail Creek Drive yesterday, March 31. She owns a principal place of residence in another town far from here, but by the Census Department's definition her principal residence was here and now is at the house she just bought or rented and moved into yesterday, someplace in the city of Austin, as she spends most weeks, most weekdays, and most weekends in Austin, ostensibly for the purpose of her business. But if she was sent a census form at her other residence, she may have competed and returned it. Yours, Dora A. Smith __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com