Posted on 03/15/2010 9:00:53 AM PDT by onona
A decennial tradition that dates back 220 years to the days of George Washington continues today when federal census forms start arriving at more than 120 million households across the United States.
But hanging over this 23rd U.S. census are concerns about a decline in participation.
While the U.S. census has always evoked some resentment toward the feds for poking their nose into people's business, there's a sense that America's distrust of the government has reached greater heights and could contribute to poor census returns.
(Excerpt) Read more at buffalonews.com ...
Stop talking nonsense.
I did say some had other questions, that were no longer asked, like how much you paid for your home or your place of employment.
In 1810, it was perfectly normal to have a census worded that way. If you notice, there is a place on that form for slaves.
Now how does that save money? Here is a guy (stranger to me) being paid by the hour plus his milage to hand deliver the census form. If it needed to be hand delivered why not let my rural route carrier do that job? She is known to me. She comes by and delivers mail everyday.
More nonsense. Its like some people are allergic to new information.
Then people wonder why we arent taken seriously in things that matter with this country.
Stop worrying about filling out a form that your ancestors filled out, every 10 years and worry about the communist in the whitehouse.
Understood,
but this is a nationwide drive, show your solidarity with the anti-racists by stating that we are Americans and will not be “apportioned” by our “race”.
I have your back on this one, New Yawk Minute. I also do a lot of genealogy and would never have discovered my ancestors without the census back for a couple hundred years.
That said, I do think it should be restricted to very basic questions and not some long form intrusive query about personal habits and habitat.
I would also like an accounting on exactly who is recording and interpreting the returned censuses.
Address that to yourself. Have a nice, government toady type day...
There were even more languages and more immigration in the late 1800s-early 1900s. They managed to get the info from those people. The spellings is awful, but the people were counted.
Thats right. If you cant argue your point successfully, then attack the person who can.
There is nothing wrong with filling out the census form you get. Period. They WILL get your info..even if it means getting it from your neighbor.
Are you absolutely sure that is the official census form? I’d be careful If I were you. It seems fishy...
I would agree with you if 20% of households weren’t being sent the expanded census, plus the outrageously intrusive American Community Survey, which is sent out in non-census years. Your ancestors never had to answer how many toilets their home had, nor answer questions about salary, commute time, medical problems, etc etc.
You are right in that the current short form census does not ask some of the questions asked in previous censuses—notably, they do NOT ask for citizenship status, nor date of immigration. They should. I’d welcome such a question, as it far more salient than some of the other questions.
They dont ask as much now, as in the censuses we are using for genealogy. What a treasure those old censuses are to genealogists.
True. Not much real useful information was found until the 1850s census, though some states conducted their own. Ancestry.com is my second home on the Net.
I’ve traced some branches of family to the early 1600s and discovered many ancestors who fought for the Rev. war and the CSA.
And your point is?
I told you..I have probably seen over two million censuses.
The early ones differ from the one now..and I dont see any as being a big deal.
And as far as the wording..whatever they used in those days, was acceptable.
Good think they arent asking us to list idiots now, huh?
They also ask for a phone number, I don't have one by the way.
Is the extended census asking about your sex life? If not, I wouldnt worry about it.
Filling out a census is no big deal. A communist in the whitehouse, is. Focus on him. Not on being counted.
Have you actually seen an expanded form?
“Better write MYOB in black marker on all the other questions, or the ACORN worker will fill in fake answers. And scan it for proof if they start with a new form.”
Excellent . . . never thought of that. I thought the government told ACORN to keep their filthy hands off the census. Of course, they can do anything they want behind closed doors.
An ACORN by any other name is still an ACORN.
The state cenuses are every 10 years, on the years ending in 5. 1905, 1915, 1925 etc.
I have been doing genealogy for 17 years. I started before internet access and before a lot of this could be obtained online.
I am currently indexing for the FHL...I did a little for ancestry, too.
Ask the japanese americans who were interned during WWII if it was a gooed thing to answer the census questions. The data was used to fing them.
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