A little bit of census sense

Sorry I did not get to post anything last week.  I hope some of you missed me!  I've been thinking especially about Thomas so this post is a little history lesson in his honor.  I suspect I may not be sharing anything historically new for him, but perhaps putting my own spin on it will be enlightening to some of you.

The US census records are extraordinarily valuable in family research.  These were taken every 10 years starting in 1790 and become public 72 years later.  I'm not sure how 72 was selected for the number of years, but I believe it had to do with average life span at the time of the decision.  In other words, most could expect that those appearing in the newly public census would have died in the meantime.  Therefore April 1 2012 (less than a year away!) is circled in red on my calendar as that is when the 1940 census will become public.

Each of you has likely filled out census forms for yourselves but this is not how the information was collected "back in the day".  Census enumerators were hired to go door to door to record information about the inhabitants.  This information was recorded by hand based on the answers given by whomever answered the door.  Just imagine that for about one minute and you can see how much room there is for error in that process: language barriers, enumerator shortcomings (some handwriting in the census records looks as though this person was barely literate), neighbors answering the questions for the household across the street and etc. Not unlike the hoopla raised over proper enumeration of the homeless in many urban areas.  A great deal depends on the census count -- congressional districts for a prime example.  Anyhow, though the census records are wonderful resources, they are also very prone to error.

Most of the 1890 census was destroyed in a fire.  This is a critical time period for your ancestors as this is the time when they were settling in this country, starting their work lives and families.  The years between the 1880 and 1900 census records are "prime" for your family.  It created a great big hole and although New York has its own census for 1892 it is largely not yet indexed making it much more difficult to use.

 When the 1940 census becomes public, I expect to find your mother and her brother living with their grandparents.  I expect to find your dad at home with his sisters and his parents.  But just because these are the thing I "expect" to find, there's near certainty that I will also find some wonderful genealogical gems.  Finding your g g grandfather Giuseppe Nicholas Coffarelli in the 1910 census with his son John and THEN (years later) finally locating the missing Margaret Innocenca Coffarelli living in the VERY SAME HOUSE.  I count 15 people in that house in 1910.  Imagine the dinner table!!!