2020 Census - Oh, Dear!

It’s Census Time and here’s my take on the 2020 U.S. Census. 

I’m not impressed.  I got the mailer the second week in March when we were all busy trying to make plans for the unknown.  I put it in my to do pile for Spring Break.  One of my adult children, who lives 4 minutes from me in the same town never got the form.  My other adult child, who recently moved back to our home and has mail forwarded from the last address, never got it either.  Hmm, not good if you’re trying to locate everyone.  Definitely not good when everyone is housebound but the census takers aren’t out and about because it doesn’t officially open until April 1, 2020.

Next problem was I tried to complete the form online.  I was halfway done when the doorbell rang and the roofer came to try to find why my kitchen window was leaking (because the window installer insists the window isn’t the problem).  When I came back it had timed out and I had to start all over.  Seriously, they couldn’t have put a Save button on that.  (Happily, it wasn’t my roof – found a pin hole in the soffit and all it took was caulk!)

The first question I had confusion over was number 5 - …”If there is someone living here who pays the rent or owns this residence, start with listing him or her as Person 1”  Well, duh, it’s jointly owned and technically, it’s a trust so our adult kids also own it but should I add them as one doesn’t live with us?  I don’t know.  I opted to just include my husband and me.  I figure a future genealogist will see the property tax record and figure it out.  Maybe I’m just overthinking this because I am a genealogist.  It does bring out an important point about how our ancestors interpreted questions in the past.  We have no idea how they were thinking.

Then I got stuck on “What is the person’s race?”  So, I have to add my “origin.”  I am a proud Mutt and if I hadn’t filled it out online the space provided would not have worked for me.  I am Croatian, French-German, Irish, English, Scottish and Scandinavian.  Technically, my origin is Africa but I have no idea how far they wanted me to go back.  Should I have put Neandertal, too?  It is in my DNA.  And then, to complete my adult kid who’s living with us temporarily – had to add my Mutt hubby.  Yeah, this is really dumb.  All I kept thinking about was the Ancestry.com commercial with the guy in the lederhosen trading it in for a kilt.  A family member and co-workers thought it was a dumb question, too, so they put down Mixed American.  I kind of like that.  Future genealogists will be so confused with this response. 

Although this doesn’t apply to me, under “American Indian” (Seriously, you’d think they would have put Native American as they did with Alaskan Native.) Mayan and Aztec are a choice.  What about Incan?  Clearly not every choice is provided but why did they select the ones they listed?  Inquiring minds want to know. 

I completed it in the morning and in the afternoon, received a second mailing that said I hadn’t completed the first one.  What a waste of money!  It’s wasn’t due until April 1^st anyway so why send a second mailer to me when my adult kids never got the first one?!  Typical waste of money.