[oh8eleven]

The original government incompetence....
Sadly, not the original ...

1890 Census Fire
"Firemen rushed to the scene to put the fire out, but what wasn’t already destroyed by fire and smoke was drowned in water:
25% was said to have been destroyed by the flames; 50% by the smoke and water that followed it.

And what happened to the remaining 25 %? Most of it was shuffled around from place to place until it was finally destroyed in the 1930s."

I'm the family genealogist and the 1890 Census could have answered a lot of questions.

[JohnBovenmyer]

IIRC, the census prior to 1890’s were stored in vaults designed to protect against fire. But they were full and the Feds hadn’t built additional safe storage. 1890’s was stacked outside the vaults; the older stuff inside them was preserved. You’d think that all those Progressive administrations between 1890 and 1921 would have spent the pittance required for more quality storage. But they couldn’t be troubled to be competent. And they learned nothing in the next 50 years.