Could you let us all know the answer to this question--I have the same question but
for other addresses in Manhattan.

Thank you,

Karen vanHaagen Campbell, Bellevue, WA, USA, JG #390095

Researching:
LICHTENSTEIN (Odessa, Ukraine; Vienna (Wien); NY, NY, USA)
BROUNOFF and TEHERKAS(/CHERKAS/TZERKAS?) (Elizavetgrad/Kirovograd, St. Petersburg,
Ukraine; Warsaw; NY, NY)
HENRY (Germany?; Russia; Germany?; NY, NY to Boston, MA and back to NY, NY)
MEYER/MEIER (Germany; NY to Boston, MA and back to NY, NY)

From: David Laskin [mailto:laskin.david@...]

I have found my ancestors on the 1910 census -- they lived in a building at 195
Madison Street on New York's Lower East Side. The building had 16 units, numbered
on the census >from 277 to 292. My family was #282. My question is: did census
takers start at the bottom of apartment buildings and work their way up, numbering
units consecutively as they ascended?

Instructions for census takers, 1910 are here:
http://usa.ipums.org/usa/voliii/inst1910.shtml

David Rosen
Boston, MA

I have found my ancestors on the 1910 census -- they lived in a building at 195
Madison Street on New York's Lower East Side. The building had 16 units, numbered on
the census >from 277 to 292. My family was #282. My question is: did census takers
start at the bottom of apartment buildings and work their way up, numbering units
consecutively as they ascended? If so, that would have put my family on the second
floor of that tenement house. If anyone has wisdom on this subject, I'd love to hear

from you. Thanks.

David Laskin,
Seattle, WA

The question on whether the enumerators were instructed to canvas an
apartment house in a particular order probably won't be answered by looking
at the enumerator instructions on the IPUMS website. Generally, IPUMS only
shows that part of their instructions that were devoted to how to fill out
the census form (schedule). There is usually a large number of sections for
enumerators (responsibilities, legal requirements, etc.) that are not shown
on the website. You would need to find an original instruction book for
that. I have such books for 1890, 1930 and 1940, but not for 1910. I know
that for the 1930 census, instructions were given for doing city blocks (do
all 4 sides before moving to the next physical block), but not for doing
units within an apartment complex. Although apartment complexes are
mentioned in the full instructions (for 1930 and 1940), there are no
instructions for the sequence of visiting units.

However, consider this. I have reports of census takers (enumerators)
quitting after one day on the job in New York City because they found their
apartment complexes lacked elevators, and they could not do the walking up
and down stairs. So let's say you are one of those (elderly?) enumerators.
Are you going to walk up all those stairs to the top floor, exhausted, and
start your enumerations? Or are you going to do it at a slower pace,
working >from the ground floor up? I think the answer is obvious, but
whether that actually happened is another matter.

Joel Weintraub
Dana Point, CA
http://members.cox.net/census1940/