In discussion with a 20 year researcher of census schedules, the topic came
up of "what happened to the original census for Nash Co NC" since the
originals were sent to Washington, D.C. Explanation:
"The 1850, 1860, and 1870 census schedules had three (3) sets. The first set
for all of the names from a county was taken to the local county courthouse
for public display soon after the census was taken. The second copy was sent
to the Secretary of State for the state or territory. A third copy was sent
to Washington. "
I ran across snatches from Dollarhide's book on the subject of census,
spelling, etc. I think you can have more clarity about your individual
Chamblee, Chamlee, Shamblee, Chamley etc families when understanding the
circumstances of how all these records are made. When Anne, Bobbe, Jack,
Carla and I field questions about this family, the surname spelling usually
comes up. ("Not my family, we don't spell the name like that). The spelling
flipflopped unbelievably from family to family to father to son to year to
state, etc.
Here are a few paragraphs from the article which may enlighten the subject
better:
"Harry Hollingsworth reported some differences between the state and federal
census copies in his article, "Little Known Facts About the U.S. Census," in
the American Genealogist, Vol. 53 (1977), page 11:
[A little aside by D'Ann here. Harry Hollingsworth was quite a well-known
professional researcher. He was old when I used to see him at his little
microfilm machine at our large FHC. He has since died. He gave his genealogy
collection to a friend (professional British researcher), who had no room for
rows of metal filling cabinets so she stored them at the Los Angeles FHC. She
gave me permission to look through them a few years ago. I only found one
little card about Chamblees, and it was in Upson Co. GA, nothing really
helpful. I am still looking for collateral lines.]
Continuing Harry's comments:
' I have personally found many discrepancies between the Federal and State
copies . . . Whole names have either been changed or omitted. Ages have been
copied wrong. Whereas, in the originals, the surnames of each family are
generally written over and over again, in the copies the word "ditto" or its
abbreviation "do" appears instead. When written over and over, a surname has
much less chance of being written incorrectly! In one Federal entry, I find
Rebecca Gey but "Grey" in the original. In anther Federal entry, Amanda
Vandyke appears, but she is Amanda A. Vanslyke in the original. Esther
Hollinsworth of the original — the correct name — appears as Esther
Hollenback in the Federal copy!"
Genealogist Leland Meitzler discovered what appeared to be his
great-grandfather and family listed in the 1860 Wisconsin federal census
under the name "Metzern." But by looking at the state copy of the 1860
Wisconsin census, he found the name was spelled correctly as "Meitzler.'
There are many more examples of copying errors between the county, state, and
federal copies. The original census schedules were bound into large books and
the task of copying the handwritten information from one book to another book
was obvious tedious and prone to errors.
Knowing that your ancestor were listed in a microfilmed census record and
that record may not have been the original — does that explain why the name
of your ancestor is missing, misspelled, or was given a first letter initial
rather than the full name?"
To find out what happened to the original census schedules and if you find
them at a courthouse near you see the full article is at:
http://www.genealogybulletin.com/HTML/current.html
Hope this helps.