In a message dated 8/27/2006 11:57:53 AM Eastern Standard Time, SurfCi [email protected] writes: Yes, but why would they want to do that? And assuming there was some purpose, why did they count the 16-18's again among the 16 -26's?? TC- The Source merely states that they wanted to get a better fix on the number of young men between those ages. Perhaps for potential military reasons -- I can't say. But it didn't go beyond just wanting to narrow down the ages or the young men and the number of them. And, yes, it is noted in the book that census takers might not have recorded this info correctly. In fact, the book states that census takers were not issued official instructions on how to complete the entries included in the census until 1830. Joan