Census answers can appear to be wrong for a variety of reasons. Most of those stem from issues with the informant or the enumerator. Sometimes the “wrong” information is not really wrong at all and is the result of the genealogist not being fully aware of the instructions given to the census enumerator. Of course some enumerators did not follow instructions. Others did. In preparing for my webinar on the upcoming release of the 1950 US Census, I discovered this reference to how places of birth are to be handled in that enumeration. Quoting from the instruction manual’s instructions on item 13 (place of birth): For a person who was born in a hospital or elsewhere outside of the State in which his family was living at the […]
Census enumeration district maps at the National Archives (1880-1950) are online and can be searched here. Try searching for “yourstate yourcounty” or “yourstate yourcity” to locate items of interest.
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