There are a lot of theories on why someone's information doesn't stay the same from census to census, or they don't age in 10 increments, etc. Any of these possibilities may turn out to be true depending on the individual family (except since we can't talk to them, there's no way of answering the question of what is the actual case in OUR family's instance.) 1. Mother answered the questions one year and gave the ages right. 2. Father answered the questions one year & estimated the ages, because he couldn't remember for sure. 3. Mother was embarrassed about being older than dad, and fibbed a little? 4. The family wasn't home so the neighbors answered the questions. 5. The eight year old answered the questions one year, and was really way off, but at least we now know what everybody's nicknames is. 6. The person answering the questions was getting older, & really couldn't remember off-hand how old anybody was. (I wish I could not relate to this one, but I find that I have to stop & figure out some of the ages in my family these days.) As for the places people were born, some people didn't know where their spouse was born, much less where their spouse's parents were born. Not only that, in territorial days, it might have been one territory to start with, and gone through two or three names before it actually became a state. Just some ideas, Karen