Posts in April 9, 2020

Despite lamentations to the contrary, the US Census is not taken to be a genealogical document. It is taken for a variety of governmental purposes and the data it contains is used by a host of governmental and private agencies. It is not meant to provide a genealogical record for future generations. No census was ever taken as a means of providing a genealogical record for the future. Public records may provide information of use to genealogists, but those records were created for other reasons. That information was asked for other reasons. Military records, land records, pension records, court records, probate materials, and other records generated by a government body were not created to leave a genealogical record. The census was not either. Instead of lamenting the details […]