If you have urban ancestors (or even not so urban ones), consider using city directories to fill in those off-census years. Directories may list others in the household (particularly if they are old enough to be on their own, but still living at home) and can document moves in off census years. Directories can also help you to find people in the census when the indexes fail.
Always copy the page with the abbreviations too. Otherwise they may really confuse you.
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