6.1 A Full Census Survey
“Every family has a story that it tells itself, that it passes on to the children and grandchildren. The story grows over the years, mutates, some parts are sharpened, others dropped, and there is often debate about what really happened. But even with these different sides of the same story, there is still agreement that this is the family story.”1 — A.M. Homes
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Continue to utilize the research log and update family group records to properly document searches and findings.
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Work backwards, if possible, seeking the census records of three generations of family members.
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Understand how and when to cite census records.
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Analyze census documents and census indexes to substantiate findings and discover new data.
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Learn about different types of non-population schedules.
When researching in a place where census records are available, completing a full census survey for each family member is an important step toward answering the research question. A full census survey consists of identifying the census records for each individual throughout his or her lifetime. If, after a thorough search, a census record cannot be discovered, the researcher turns to local censuses, other types of census schedules, and then to census substitutes.