No this is not a joke. However, the fire was in Suitland not at Pennsylvania Ave. in D.C. where the census records are kept. I don't mean that they do not keep valuable records in Suitland at all. They are the kind of records that people use when researching for a book, or really digging deeply into their own genealogy. I used them once when I found a letter discussing a Civil War relative of mine. I had an appointment with a Civil War specialist. I couldn't figure out who signed the letter and the specialist didn't even have to think twice. He knew and told me quite a bit of what the letter was concerning. It was very interesting. They had the registers that detailed when he was hired and how long he worked there and his pay. But if I had not been given the letter I would never have been there in the first place. Incidentally, he worked for the Census Dept. - the Bureau had not been formed then. So while any loss of records is serious, it is not as bad for us as if the census had been destroyed - . Mary Lou