Census 2000 - Ancestry Unknown

Adoption and Census 2000

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• US Census Bureau Home Page

Dateline: March 20, 2000

I received my Census 2000 form a couple of days ago and I have to admit that I was surprised. After all the advance publicity about how massive and complete this decennial census would be, I expected something at least the size of a telephone book. Instead, my long census form looks depressingly like my tax-return booklet.

Flipping through it, I saw words like "adopted son/daughter" and got my hopes up, believing that we would finally get more accurate numbers of adopted persons and adoptive families (and by deduction, birth parents) in this country. Past census questions about adopted persons were limited to children of Person 1 living at home and I had hopes that this new and improved census would go beyond that. After all, federally funded programs for all adoptees haven't appeared on any budget I've ever seen, so the question seemed to be there simply as a means of getting a more accurate count.

And then I came back down to earth. This is, after all, the federal government and its agenda is - obviously - not too closely aligned with mine.

The Ancestry/Ethnic Origin Questions

The census is one more instance where many adoptees and/or their parents are faced with questions that can only be answered - if answers are truthful and accurate - outside normal parameters with the ever-too-familiar "Unknown - Adopted."

Different Census Forms

First, you should know that there are two different forms that were sent out for mailback responses: a long form and a short form.

According to information from the Census Bureau, one in every six forms sent out was a long form (.pdf format), asking for very detailed information about everyone living in the residence. The other five were short forms (.pdf format) asking basic questions about name, age, gender, race, and relationship.

(Including the follow-up forms, forms for special populations, and forms available at Census offices, there are nine forms being used this year, however only two - the long form and the short form that were mailed to households - were the official Census 2000 forms.)

Concerns and Questions

The form has raised concerns about providing truthful answers to some questions:

Adopted persons' heritage, ethnic background, and/or race
Identification of an adoptee living at home who is not the adopted child of "Person 1" on the form. (Example: Biological child of Person 1 who has been adopted by Person 2; the adopted child of the companion/partner of Person 1; the adopted child of persons living in a home with their home-owner parent(s).) All family connections are expressed in terms of relationship to Person 1 only.

There appears to be no way for adoptees (and parents in the case of an adopted child or grandchild living in their home) to answer some questions truthfully without writing "UNKNOWN - ADOPTEE/ADOPTED," or to be able to register an adoptee's status as an adopted person using the relationship descriptions provided.

Possible Solutions

For some, the census will raise no questions, while for others, it will be important to include information that conveys their connection to adoption. According to information from the Census Bureau Helpline, there are a couple of things that can be done if you fall in the latter group.

Next: What you can do

© Nancy Ashe

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