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From: "James E. (Jim) Campbell" <>
Subject: [TMG] Re: Census dates (was Copious Ancestors)
Date: Sun, 10 Sep 2000 15:38:41 -0400


Darrell Martin wrote:

> When evaluating census data, keep two dates in mind. One, the legal
"as of" date. Each
> census has a date that is supposed to be the effective date of any
information.
>
> Two, the enumeration date. This is the date that the census taker
actually obtained the
> information.
>
> The issue is that VERY frequently the people being counted, or the
enumerator, or both,
> misunderstood the relationship of the two dates. If a birth date is
between the effective
> and the enumeration date, I can't tell you which way to guess, but I
can tell you that's
> what you'll be doing <grin>!

Sometimes the census taker will leave clues. I occasionally find a
census entry that says a child is 3/12 year old and then it says
partnthetically that the child was born in Feb. If the data was
enumerated in August, you can conclude that the census taker understood
the "as of" date. (If memory serves me correctly, the "as of" date was
supposed to be June 1.)

Jim Campbell



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