Who doesn’t? This great shirt might just have to be added to my wardrobe. But how many times would I have to explain it? Would people ask? Would I be stopped in the grocery store and asked to expound? Would people be as horrified as I was to learn that the original data for the 1890 Census, groundbreaking for its use of punch-card technology, was lost to fire? Or would people just think I was some kind of reenactor?
The 1890 Census is for me is the twist in the game, the wrench in the works. If I had access to 1890, I might know how Lewis Hirsch got from rural Pennsylvania to Philadelphia. It would be a small chink in a brick wall, but big enough to peer through and see just a little more.
I feel your pain. 20 years is a long time without census info!