Thursday, March 16, 2000

Esther Camacho walks in great-great-grandfather's census tracks

David Pellerin/Caller-Times

Esther Camacho examines census books from the 1900s. Her great-great-grandfather worked on the census in Hidalgo County in 1900.

Teacher John M. Franz went door-to-door, collecting census information from residents in his hometown in Hidalgo County in the year 1900.
   One hundred years later, his great-great-granddaughter, Esther N. Camacho, a genealogy instructor at Del Mar College, is doing the same for Nueces County.
   "When I was walking through a neighborhood earlier this month delivering census questionnaires, I definitely felt a connection," Camacho said. "Being an enumerator for the Census 2000 is the closest I'll ever get to walking in his shoes."
   Unlike Franz, Camacho isn't traveling on horseback. Modern-day enumerators also don't ask the census questions. They simply hand-deliver the questionnaires to rural residents. Others get theirs by mail.
   Surprised by a name
   Camacho first worked as an enumerator for the U.S. Census Bureau in 1990 while living in Austin; at the time she was unaware that her great-great-grandfather had been one at the turn of the century. Three years later, while conducting family history research in Hidalgo County, Camacho found Franz's name on old census records. At first she didn't notice the name; she was too riveted by the handwriting.
   "I kept scrolling through page after page, it was just so beautiful," Camacho recalled. "So then I decided I had to know who had so carefully written down all this documentation. I saw the name of the enumerator listed and was taken aback. I never expected to see this name on a handwritten census."
   By the time Franz served as an enumerator for the Census Bureau, he was a well-known and trusted member of the Hidalgo County community, Camacho said. According to court records and newspaper articles, Franz was a tax assessor in the late 1800s and was an estate executor.
   Searching for a photo
   This spring break, Camacho plans to return to Hidalgo County and attempt to locate a picture of Franz.
   "Some people believe it important to find where their ancestors were buried," Camacho said. "It provides some closure. But for me, a picture would complete this puzzle."
   For now, Camacho relishes the fact that she is doing something Franz also believed important.
   "Some people believe the Census Bureau will inform the IRS or INS about them," Camacho said. "But that is not the purpose of the Census Bureau. Whether you are a legal citizen or not, this is the time to be counted. As big as this country is, as many people that this country has, it is important that every citizen have the opportunity to be 'heard,' so to speak.
   "The census is also real important for people doing genealogy because it is a record of where their ancestors were at a particular time. Who knows, perhaps a descendant someday may be glad you took the time to complete the Census 2000."
  
  
 

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