Census Avoidance - With Apologies to My Descendants

I was going to do it this weekend.  After I hurriedly wrote my Carnival of Genealogy submission (and you can tell I wrote it in a hurry to meet the deadline), my plan this weekend was to finally find my deadbeat maternal grandfather in the 1920 census.  I've looked hard for the 5 years or so I've been interested in genealogy, but had no luck.  He was born in 1899 and I've located him in the 1900, 1910, and 1930 annual census counts, but he's avoiding me in the 1920 version.  Of course I found every one of his 11 siblings spread out all over Colorado and Wyoming (including his parents), but despite a great effort this weekend, he kept himself hidden from me.  Of course the fact he grew from a dysfunctional young adult into a dysfunctional old man probably is why I'm having a hard time finding him - I even cussed him out under by breath for being so irresponsible.  For some reason I started thinking about my descendants looking for me in the census many years into the future...then I apologized to my grandfather for saying such harsh things about him...and to my unborn family members who will be cussing ME out...I admit it...I've also been a census avoider.

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I did a mental census survey for my life and came up with the following dismal record:

1960 - This was the first census of my life (i was born in 1957).  I don't know for a fact, but because I know my parents were good citizens, I'm sure they dutifully recorded my existence.   

1970 - I was 13 years old and my parents were still alive (my mother died in 1971 and father in 1972).  The answer is probably the same as 1960.  Ok, I'm 2 for 2 now.

1980 - I was in college at Colorado State University.  I remember studying the census in one of my government classes in the fall of 1979.  Its importance was highlighted because it was going to happen in 1980.  Unfortunately, I was in a cynical, rebellious, and contrary phase at about the same time.   I remember receiving the census forms in the mail...and I also remember ripping them up and tossing the remains in the trash.  No government agency was going to tell me I had to do something - I was defiant.  Of course I always filed my income tax returns...I may have been cynical and defiant about the census, but I wasn't completely stupid.

1990 - In the ensuing 10 years I got over my rebelliousness, and contrary attitude...I was still a bit of a cynic though.  I was a young Army Officer and just moved to Maryland.  I had an apartment, but spent most of my time at my new girlfriend's place (this girlfriend is now my wife of 16 and a half years).  I vaguely remember receiving my census packet in the mail because I was reminded of it when my then girlfriend completed hers.  I made a mental note to look for the census packet the next time I was at my apartment.  I never did...I assume it was buried in all my junk and eventually was thrown out (the mental note didn't stick I guess).

2000 - I was deployed to Bosnia during this census enumeration period.  I remember talking to my wife during a weekly phone call and she told me about receiving the forms.   I asked her if she included me and she said she didn't because there was a note saying not to include military members of the household who were deployed.  Apparently, the personnel section of the deployed unit would account for us in the census and I didn't have to do anything.   Two weeks before my time in Bosnia was up, I visited  the personnel people to get orders published sending me home at the end of May 2000.  There was a slight problem in that they had no record of me actually being there...they had no record of me signing into the unit.  This was a time period where individual deployments only lasted 6 months, so with the constant turnover of people (to include the personal folks) screw-ups were not surprising.  If they had no record of me being there, I'm reasonably certain I was not included in the census count that year.  They eventually fixed the personal records, but it was too late for the census.

So there you have my dismal census record.  Out of five enumerations covering my life so far, I was counted in two of them...and only then because my parents did it.  The 2010 census is coming up in a couple of years...I wonder if I will make it into this one? 

Comments

[Daniel]

As to your ancestor who is hard to find. Try a different genealogy service, if your first search is in Ancestry.com, try HeritageQuest, or vice versa. The old soundex indexes present another opportunity to localize your search. Some western states carried out a state census halfway between the federal one, e.g. 1885, 1895. The indexing varies, failure to find a person in one service does not mean the name is not there. If your ancestor has an unusual first name, just search for first names in a particular area. If you have a target county, it is not all that hard to scan through 50 odd screens to see if you spot a name.

[Tim]

Thanks for the comments. I agree...with all of the data out there on us now, the census may not be as important as in the past. For some of my ancestors in the 19th and early 20th centuries the census is all I have. I don't think it will be that way for us 70 some years from now.

[Apple]

I have no idea if I was recorded in 1980 or 1990. I've moved so many times that my descendants may have trouble tracking me but with today's electronic recording of just about everything, maybe not.

[Blaine]

Tim,

Too bad for your descendants! Luckily, they'll have thousands of other types of records created by modern-day man (including this blog, hopefully).

I've been recorded in the three censuses I've been alive for (the 1980, 1990, and 2000), and I'm very excited to finally fill one out myself in 2010. Of course, it's doubtful if I'll ever get to see those census returns released, since I will be 106 in 2082!