Continuing on the census trail, George G. Morgan’s “Along Those Lines” column from last week, concerned the importance of documenting and studying past census information (as well as other related documents). Specifically - study the families around the person(s) you are researching, as at some point there is a good chance they’ll be connected in some way (among other reasons, which George notes).

Kate Trotter has an article in the Quesnel Cariboo Observer, Become part of history through census, that discusses the ongoing debate in Canada over allowing people to hold back their 2006 Census information from future generations. To be more precise, Canadians can opt out of having their census information released in 2098 (the normal 92 year cycle), and genealogists are working to insure that they realize the impact this would have.

According to Maija Palmer of the Financial Times, half a million genealogists visited Ancestry.co.uk after they placed the 1841 census. Apparently this was the first “comprehensive” census in the UK, which led to this rush.

Schelly Talalay Dardashti has a very interesting article, It’s All Relative: Getting down to it in Ynetnews, if you happen to be into Jewish genealogy. It’s about an upcoming Jewish genealogy conference that is huge.

With all of the talk about the 2006 Canadian Census, and people having the option of whether or not the information will be revealed in 2098, The Genealogue mentions that headstone information will become optional as well

Do you care who knows your secrets in 2098? is another article about the Candian Census, and this time around being able to opt out of having the information revealed in 2098. It’s by Peter Van Harten,writing for the The Hamilton Spectator, and it gets into some of the issues faced by Canadians over just how much information they want revealed for people in the future to see (whether genealogists or family members). With so much of this information coming online and being easily accessed, and with the questions expanding quite a bit, it’s fast becoming a hot topic.

The Durham Region News has an article by Jeff Hayward,
Choose ‘yes’ on Census, urges group , that is pushing Canadians to check off ‘Yes’ on releasing their census information in 92 years.

The USGS (US Geological Survey, not the US Genealogical Survey!) and Google have teamed up to provide a virtual tour of the “Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906″, and it helps put things in perspective. For many genealogists who have done research in regards to that area of California, it’s caused quite a few problems. It’s one of those major events where many important records are lost (not just genealogy-related but historical as well), people are uprooted, people died and were buried in unmarked graves, etc.

You can access it at the USGS site