Frequently Asked Questions
Q: I keep seeing 'TORN PAGE' in search results. What does it
mean?
A: Since many of the census document are very old, back to 1860, some
of them have been damaged and certain information was lost. 'TORN
PAGE' simply means that that portion of the original document is no
longer legible.
Q: Why do some of the results have empty columns?
A: Between 1860 and 1920 the questions on each years' census
varied. When combining censi some fields were left blank because there was no
corresponding information from that year's census.
Q: Why can I only search some fields in certain years?
A: Since the censi questions vary from census to census as did the data,
so only certain fields exist in some years.
Q: Can I find out something like, "How many miners existed in 1910"?
A: Yes, the 'Averages' tool will allow you to find such information.
By searching with this tool for the average age of professions of
'miner' in the year 1910 will return the max, min, average, and total
count of people fitting that criteria.
Q: Why does some of the information returned not seem to make
sense?
A: Some may be abbreviations and we are currently working on correcting
some spelling mistakes that may appear. If you believe you have encountered
one such error please contact the webmaster and he will either explain
what it means or have it corrected.
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