In a message dated 10/25/2005 4:43:34 AM Eastern Daylight Time, hlm@qtm.net writes: One census year people were advised before it began to write down all the people in the household and their proper age in case they were out in the field or gone from home on the day the census taker arrived. This was because of so many errors in names, dates of birth, and place of birth. Often one of the older children would be at home taking care of the younger children and would get things wrong.......or a new second wife might not get the ages of all the children from a previous marriage correct. ---- There were often times non-family members who gave out information on their neighbors and relied solely on what they thought they had heard people state. --- Also - I love how people would change their names. ---- People didn't necessarily change their names. Think of how many people you know with nicknames. Sometimes it wasn't they who "changed" their names, but that on one census the official names (given names, not called names) were listed, and on the next census the names they used in daily life was listed. If a man's name was William Isaac, but called "bud" or "Bill", sometimes the census would given Wm or Bill or Bud or W.I. - but none of them are wrong and it wasn't due to any fickleness on the part of the person. Many times in the south people use their middle names as their called names, but the census taker many have asked for the given name. --- For example the father might be Peter and the son Peter Isaac.....when the child was young the family called him Isaac, then when he was grown he might have used his official name of Peter or Peter I...it also seems women were very willing to change their names when they got married, to use a middle name or just pick a name they liked better than the one they were given at birth.....that makes marriage records interesting because it is usually the first time the young woman could give her name as SHE wanted to be called and not what her parents called her. And again, you have to know that Polly or Molly might have been a Mary, or that Maggie could have been Margaret, etc. Then you throw in some of those horrible names used at one point - think they were Greek Goddesses or something...... ----- The horrible names used at one point were often Biblical names. Philip Draper who died 1856 Smith Co Tn had a daughter named Tryphena - a name mentioned in the New Testament. Around the time of the Spanish American War, names of Spanish origin began to be the vogue: Carmilla, Carmunta, etc. No wonder people (men as well as women) were called by nicknames. The changing of names on census records is not always due to the fickle nature of the person (I've personally never encountered that situation - there is usually a plausible reason for the change), but according to the method the census taker chose to list the family on it's official records, and what information was given by the person interviewed - whether they were family or not. Sharon Tabor