I recall there being all sorts of foofoorah last census about all those horrible questions that were Horribly Infringing on Freedom as Given To Us By The Founding Fathers but Now Lost Amidst The Creeping Socialism of the Freedom Hating Obamanation.
I was poking through some census records, and noted the 1850 census (which would have included in it some folks who were kids when the Constitution was enacted) included such Freedom Loving and Not At All Intrusive questions as:
– Married within the last year
– Attended school within the year
– Persons over 20 years of age who cannot read and write
– Whether deaf and dumb, blind, insane, idiotic, pauper, or convict
Too bad Michelle Bachmann wasn't alive then so she could have seen what Truly Constitutional Censuses were like back in the day.
135 view(s)
Also queried was "Value of Real Estate Owned."
I wonder how many admitted to being "insane" or "idiotic"?
+Mark Means I suspect that answer depended a lot on which spouse answered the door.
The 1850 census was the first that asked for information about individuals. Prior to this census, the entries only include family name and the number of people that are male or female and the age range of those people. (As well as slaves, but that’s a different story.) Sadly, those older census records are much less useful to genealogists (since the first names of the various family members are lost. )
@Mary – It is interesting through the 19th Century watching the census forms change, in terms of what gets asked and what doesn’t (1860 not only asks about real property but personal property, and 1870 has one about whether an individual is prevented from voting for reasons other than being involved in insurrection, cough cough).
And then there's the question Curly asked when the Three Stooges were census takers: Are you married… or happy?
Surely it is time you all admitted that George Washington’s Socialist Experiment should now be called a failure, and just swear allegiance to Her Majesty?
@LH – If I had any confidence in the British government or that joining the Commonwealth would actually help …