Sunday, December 16, 2007

Where was I when census were taken?

Miriam has started a meme titled "Where Were You During the Censuses?" on her Ancestories blog, and has answered the question for herself and her husband so far. Tim Agazio had posted earlier on his Genealogy Reviews Online blog about his Census Avoidance through the years and wondered if his descendants will be upset at him.

I'll play -- here is my location in the Federal Census years and my memories of these events:

* 1950 - I was 6 years old, living with my parents Frederick W. (age 38, born MA) and Betty C. Seaver (age 30, born CA) at 2119 30th Street in San Diego, California. My brother Stanley (age 3) was also in the household. I don't know if my parents filled out the census form or not - we'll see in 2022, I guess!

* 1960 - I was 16 years old, a high school student, living with my parents, my brother Stan and my brother Scott (age 4) at 2119 30th Street in San Diego. I don't know if my parents filled out the census form or not - we'll see in 2032, I guess!

* 1970 - I was 26 years old, an aerospace engineer, living with my new wife, Linda at 540 "C" Street, Apartment 10, in Chula Vista, California. I don't recall if we filled out the census form.

* 1980 - I was 36 years old, an aerospace engineer, residing with my wife Linda and our two daughters, Lori and Tami, at 1154 Via Trieste in Chula Vista, California. I vaguely remember filling out the census form and sending it in.

* 1990 - I was 46 years old, an aerospace engineer, residing with my wife Linda and our two daughters, Lori and Tami, at 1154 Via Trieste in Chula Vista, California. I vaguely remember filling out the census form and sending it in. This was the first census after I starting my genealogy research.

* 2000 - I was 56 years old, an aerospace engineer, residing with my wife Linda at 1154 Via Trieste in Chula Vista, California. I remember filling out the census short-form and sending it in. I almost cheated and put our two daughters in the household, but then thought better of it since their descendants would have been really confused by it after 2072.

That's it - nothing monumental there. It might be more interesting to trace our family lines this way through all the census records.

Frankly, the census records provide only a snapshot at specific times of a family's circumstances - relatives, residence, employment, wealth, etc. A "family history" based on family recollections by a number of family members is probably the best way to determine the family circumstances. Unfortunately, very few of us have these for own parents and grandparents, let alone their ancestors. That is one reason I've been transcribing Della's Journal - it's real people living real lives, and writing a few sentences each day.

UPDATE 12/17: John Newmark noted that "census" was a "supine" Latin noun (I'm confused by grammar) and that the Latin plural was also "census." Therefore, I've modified the post title to reflect proper grammar.

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