1890 US Census

[Blaise A. Darveaux]

I don't get it. I was reading on Wikipedia about the 1890 census records. It explains that 25% of the material was destroyed and another 50% (maybe 10-15%) were damaged.

However, the one thing the page does not explain is why "the surviving original 1890 census records were destroyed by government order by 1934 or 1935."

Why did they intentionally destroy the surviving material? Did they make new copies of them before destroying the originals?

Expiring minds want to know.

Blaise A. Darveaux

[ttl]

Re: 1890 US Census

From the National Archives:

http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1996/spring/1890-census-1.html

[Blaise A. Darveaux]

Re: 1890 US Census

Thanks, Tim, for supplying this link. The document begs more questions then I started with. Perhaps we will never know why the librarian didn't recognize that this item on the list should not be destroyed. Perhaps he didn't think that any of them were still legible or maybe he just rubber-stamped the list for destruction (not really looking at the details), just as a matter of routine.

Blaise A. Darveaux

[Secan Researcher]

Re: 1890 US Census

We all share your pain RE this census. I'd give my right arm (well, maybe up to the elbow) to have information from this census. Lots of interesting things happened to my various families during the 1880-1900 period and it's a long interval over which to extrapolate relationships, particularly for female relatives.