FORT WORTH, Texas — How was the handwriting on your 2010 Census form? In 72 years, when this year’s individual forms will be first released, your descendants will be able to judge for themselves.
For the first time, what will be made public for genealogical research in 2082 is a digitally scanned image of this year’s 10-question paper forms, said David Hackbarth, director of the Census Bureau’s National Processing Center in Jeffersonville, Ind. After they are digitized, the paper questionnaires will be shredded and recycled.
“The census form you fill out, your great-great-great-grandchildren will be able to see it,” Gabriel Sanchez, the Dallas-based regional census director. “You become part of the American fabric forever. As long as there is a country, you will be there to see.”
After spending months prodding people to return their forms, the bureau must quickly turn around the data so that the once-a-decade head count will be available to President Barack Obama on Dec. 31.
The census is used to determine representation in the U.S. House and to distribute more than $400 billion in federal funds.
What your kinfolks won’t see are the family photos and other “supplemental” materials that the centers deal with as they turn 130 million household forms into electronic records. Another 50 million forms will come from places like group homes, prisons, temporary housing and, starting in May, 700,000 census workers in the field.
“People do mail back things like family photos and extra information,” Sanchez said. “A lot of people add things in the margins. A lot of people put down American because they object to the concept of the ethnic divide.”
Hackbarth said it’s not a constant problem, “but when you are talking in millions it adds up quick.”
One official said the processing centers are keeping up with the mountains of paperwork.
“Some people say, ‘Well you’re just processing a form,’” she said. “I appreciate that characterization, but at the same time it’s the handwriting of 140 million different respondents that we have to deal with.
“None of whom, in my opinion, have very good handwriting.”
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