The Board of Registrars is mailing the 2009 annual census forms to every household in the towns and cities all across the U.S. A yearly census is mandated by the state and must be returned in the envelope provided within 10 days. All information must be completed. The census forms must be signed, dated, and returned even if no changes have occurred in the household.
The census is needed to obtain an accurate population count and street listing; the information collected is important for school enrollment planning, senior citizen needs and veterans benefits. In addition, the population information is a factor in determining the amount of state aid received by the town.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
IS THE CENSUS AS WE KNOW IT GOING TO DISAPPEAR !
The Republicans are afraid that re-districting will occur and they may lose some congressional seats. I think the Red and Blue states will disappear. There will be a Democratic majority in every state. I hope that the census keeps to it's original intent.
The NYT reports today that Republicans are furious over Senator Judd Gregg's withdrawal as President Obama's pick for Commerce Secretary, because they believe it signals that the White House intends to "politicize" the 2010 census.
The concern in part relates to sampling, the statistical technique that extrapolates numbers based on actual door-to-door counts and knowledge of uncounted individuals, mostly the poor and racial and ethnic minorities (and mostly Democratic voters). But the Supreme Court ruled that sampling--at least as the basis for Congressional districting--violated the Census Act (Sec. 195) in the 1999 case Department of Commerce v. United States House. So the concern about "politicizing" the Census must be based on some other concern.
The NYT reports today that Republicans are furious over Senator Judd Gregg's withdrawal as President Obama's pick for Commerce Secretary, because they believe it signals that the White House intends to "politicize" the 2010 census.
The concern in part relates to sampling, the statistical technique that extrapolates numbers based on actual door-to-door counts and knowledge of uncounted individuals, mostly the poor and racial and ethnic minorities (and mostly Democratic voters). But the Supreme Court ruled that sampling--at least as the basis for Congressional districting--violated the Census Act (Sec. 195) in the 1999 case Department of Commerce v. United States House. So the concern about "politicizing" the Census must be based on some other concern.
Friday, February 13, 2009
GENEALOGY WEB SITE ADDS SLAVE MANIFESTS, LETTERS
Genealogy Web site adds slave manifests, letters
By Janet McConnaughey • The Associated Press • February 13, 2009
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?
NEW ORLEANS — Records of more than 30,000 slaves shipped to New Orleans, copies of more than 20,000 letters to and from Abraham Lincoln and records of 4.2 million Civil War soldiers are going online for the 200th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth.
Most will be available only to Ancestry.com’s 925,000 paying subscribers. But the Lincoln letters and speeches, provided by the Library of Congress, will be free.
An index of the slave manifests also will be free once volunteers have created it from the scanned images being added to the site Thursday, said Gary Gibb, vice president for content for the family of sites.
That will be extremely valuable to historians and people interested in their family history, said Christopher Harter, director of library and reference services at Amistad Research Center, Tulane University’s black history archive. “It’s one thing to digitize and put the image up on the Web. But it’s of far greater value to have the information transcribed and searchable by those who are doing the research.”The manifests from 1810 through 1860 “document the movement of slaves from the mid-Atlantic states to the Deep South because of the cotton gin and the need for millions of slaves to work the cotton fields,” said Lisa Arnold, Ancestry.com’s expert in black genealogy. There are three documents for each ship, including the shipmaster’s signed statement that he is not importing slaves — a practice Congress banned in 1808. “He’s putting his name on the line that he’s not importing them, simply shipping them from one port in the United States to another,” Arnold said. Because the number on each ship varied, she didn’t know exactly how many slaves were involved but estimated the number to be 30,000 to 50,000. The other documents also should be interesting to scholars and history buffs, Harter said. The database of Civil War soldier profiles — including 17,000 photographs — was created by “a Civil War buff who has been collecting that kind of thing for years,” company spokesman Mike Ward said. In addition, the site is adding a collection of requests for presidential pardons from more than 15,000 former Confederate soldiers and government officials and applications from 60,000 Confederate soldiers or their widows for pensions from the state of Georgia. That state has some Confederate pension records available on its Web site. Ancestry.com is providing a complete digital collection to the Georgia state archives, Ward said. Georgia should have those records on the Web within weeks, said Anne Smith, spokeswoman for the Georgia secretary of state’s office.
By Janet McConnaughey • The Associated Press • February 13, 2009
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?
NEW ORLEANS — Records of more than 30,000 slaves shipped to New Orleans, copies of more than 20,000 letters to and from Abraham Lincoln and records of 4.2 million Civil War soldiers are going online for the 200th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth.
Most will be available only to Ancestry.com’s 925,000 paying subscribers. But the Lincoln letters and speeches, provided by the Library of Congress, will be free.
An index of the slave manifests also will be free once volunteers have created it from the scanned images being added to the site Thursday, said Gary Gibb, vice president for content for the family of sites.
That will be extremely valuable to historians and people interested in their family history, said Christopher Harter, director of library and reference services at Amistad Research Center, Tulane University’s black history archive. “It’s one thing to digitize and put the image up on the Web. But it’s of far greater value to have the information transcribed and searchable by those who are doing the research.”The manifests from 1810 through 1860 “document the movement of slaves from the mid-Atlantic states to the Deep South because of the cotton gin and the need for millions of slaves to work the cotton fields,” said Lisa Arnold, Ancestry.com’s expert in black genealogy. There are three documents for each ship, including the shipmaster’s signed statement that he is not importing slaves — a practice Congress banned in 1808. “He’s putting his name on the line that he’s not importing them, simply shipping them from one port in the United States to another,” Arnold said. Because the number on each ship varied, she didn’t know exactly how many slaves were involved but estimated the number to be 30,000 to 50,000. The other documents also should be interesting to scholars and history buffs, Harter said. The database of Civil War soldier profiles — including 17,000 photographs — was created by “a Civil War buff who has been collecting that kind of thing for years,” company spokesman Mike Ward said. In addition, the site is adding a collection of requests for presidential pardons from more than 15,000 former Confederate soldiers and government officials and applications from 60,000 Confederate soldiers or their widows for pensions from the state of Georgia. That state has some Confederate pension records available on its Web site. Ancestry.com is providing a complete digital collection to the Georgia state archives, Ward said. Georgia should have those records on the Web within weeks, said Anne Smith, spokeswoman for the Georgia secretary of state’s office.
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