In a message dated 8/26/2006 10:30:04 PM Pacific Standard Time, [email protected] writes: but it doesn't explain why they did it that way. I'm still curious about that. Just a Guess on my part. The way it was explained at ancestry.com may shed a bit of light on it. "The categories allowed Congress to determine persons residing in the United States for collection of taxes and the appropriation of seats in the House of Representatives" I am wondering if the age question was so they could specifically see how many were of a legal age for taxation, etc. Kassie