Dorothy, 1890 was the first year in which there was not a requirement that the census be made in triplicate. I forget quite why. A few states and some counties opted to maintain a copy for their own records. The balance of the census forms were sent to Washington DC, and a fire in the Archives destroyed the bulk of the records. Some scant copies were saved and, as I said, some very diligent clerks in local areas kept copies, but the vast majority of the records do not exist. There is movement to create a census alternative using cited information from contributors and municipal directories and telephone books, but I haven't heard much lately about its progress. ************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com