I took a class recently at the Minnesota Historical Society on maps and understanding census information. This class explained the information that can be found on a census and why I was unable to find some of the censuses. First on the the missing censuses, it turned out that the missing censuses where destroyed by fire. After that happened copies of a census where sent to multiple locations to prevent loss of this type again. Now back to the information on the the census. What needs to be understood about a census is that there is a census date and an enumeration date. The census date is the actual date the census is accounting for. The enumeration date is the date the information was recorded. Mistakes could be made based on that. When recording information on the census the census taker needed to clarify that he needed to know who was living in the household on the census date, not the enumeration date. For example if the census date is June 1 then no matter if someone living on that date died before the enumeration date, they need to be recorded. That also goes for births, if someone was born after the census date and before the enumeration date they should not be recorded.
What I also found out, that created a surprise for me, is that on the left side of the census they put a number next to the head of the household. This number indicated when a new household started. What I found on a census of my great great grandfather when I learned this was a surprise. My ggreat grandfather and ggreat grandmother had adopted a son before they had any children. The adopted a son named Charles Mika. This information helped me match up people in an old photo that my great grandfather was in. The picture was taken in Ortonville, MN and for the longest time I was trying figure what he would be doing there. Well it turned out the Charles Mika was a contract plumber in Ortonville and my grandfather learned plumbing in the Ortonville area. So either he learned from Charles or they both went to learn plumbing together.
I was able to track down Charles Mika's descendants using the census information. At some point Charles Mika moved his family to Washington and his descendants live there today.
There is a lot more information that can be gleaned from a census and I would advise anyone doing research to take a short course on reading a census.
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