Just a tip for this week of which I'm sure you are aware. Census takers, from the 1850 census on, were supposed to list names in a specific order - head of the household, spouse if applicable, then the children in age order with the oldest on down. Then others in the household - parents, married children, boarders, etc. Have you ever been confused or tricked up when there is an older child listed under a younger child? Why? 1 - the obvious reason is that the census taker just made a mistake and had to add a child later or the informant had forgotten a child and he just tacked them on the bottom. 2 - is it a single child, or is a married child living in the household with his his/her spouse? As an example: John 25, Mary 20, Peter 21, Elizabeth 19, then others. Could John and Mary be husband and wife or Peter and Elizabeth be married? 3 - Could a sister of the head of household be living there and fall in the age bracket of a child, i.e., much younger than her brother? Could a male or female be sister/brother of the wife? 4 - was an older child really living there or just visiting and you might find them in another census record someplace for the same year? That happened? I know that in later censuses, the census taker was to note the relationship of each person listed to the head of household. But they sometimes didn't indicate step-children, wards, etc. And sometimes they forgot to change the surnames, but continued with their " marks under the surname of the head of household. And, if you're missing a male head of household, was he dead, were they divorced, or was in fighting a war, out west looking for fortune, in another county or state looking for better land? We just can't always assume! It is only by comparing other census records or other sources that we can be sure that each child is a child of the head of household. Sandi Sandi's Puzzlers: http://www.gensoup.org/gorinpuzzles/index.php Sandi's site: http://ggpublishing.tripod.com/ Archives: http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/index?list=south-central-kentucky