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From:
Subject: Census Records
Date: Thu, 6 Jan 2005 11:16:27 EST




I am getting some flack for posting this info--so I am asking you to check
what I said carefully. Yes the censuses will still be taken--with names and
ages. I said the ones AFTER 1960 will not have the names attached to the data. I
said nothing about it not being on 1920, 30 or 40. The woman I spoke with
knew nothing about them. And every genealogist knows 1920 and 30 have all the
pertinent data that WE thrive on. We have seen those. I am just reporting what
the folks at the census bureau told me. I am praying the two people were
just plain wrong. It you remember the questions we were asked on those censuses
it is understandable why folks in this day and age are nervous. The one they
sent me this week asks not only for my race but my ethnicity. If you are at
all paranoid things like this will make it worse. Which is one reason I
called them in the first place. When the form they sent didn't have the
appropriate ID codes on it I wasn't answering so some scam artist could take my id. And
I didn't use the number on the form to call. As one of my friends said--it
could be some joker in his boxer shorts on the other end. I never read
anything anywhere about a census being done mid decade...did anyone else? And then
this VERY detailed form shows up wanting every kind of info including whether
I had indoor plumbing and how much my utility bills are each month. How much
money we make and from what sources. It was a little scary.


They have always collected names. I kept copies of the 2000 census and have
filled them out myself since 1970 (the first one after I got married). What
they told me yesterday is that the names are not kept with the data any longer.
It will be 4 unidentified people lived at 306 Shannon Way in Lawrenceville
GA in 1980. Two of them were in school. One was retired. One worked. The only
purpose now if to gather data to see what government programs will be of use
in what area. Such as "we will need stronger Social Security Programs in
Lawrenceville because 50% of the population is retired. That sort of thing. They
told me that theoretically if you are nervous about the info they want to
collect you can just put "Person ONe' in the place for the name. The only thing
absolutely required is age. you do not have to put a birthday. Now you tell
me how that will help genealogists a hundred years from now?????
The 1920 and 30 censuses do have all the info we genealogists thrive on.
Praise the Lord the 1930 census does still have a lot of info--tho
admittedly the area I am searching in all the census taker took down was names, ages
and birth states. None of the other questions were asked or maybe just not
answered.

What I was told is that after the 1960's that information was no longer kept
together. It won't affect us, we will be dead by the time those are
available, but it will affect how our grandchildren research. The census for anything
after 1960--all those questions we answered in 2000--none of that will be
available with families. You won't be able to search ancestry and find that my
daughter, son- in- law and grandchild lived with my husband and I at the time
of that census. It just breaks my heart.

I pray these folks were wrong and I am reading a 56 page site someone sent
to me to see if any of my questions are answered. If you like I will let you
know what I find. All I can tell you right now is what they told me. Their
interest now is not in who is in what family but how many people live at a
certain address and how their being their impacts their community. I don't know
how to make it plainer.
Stephanie
(mailto:)




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