tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13196976.post-1151386080697585982006-06-27T01:28:00.000-04:002006-06-27T01:28:00.000-04:00Chris,<BR/><BR/>I'll bet it was 5 billion pieces of information - surname, given name, gender, race, age, birthplace, parent's birthplace, immigration data, languages, occupation, etc. If they indexed all of that, then that comes out to something like 1.2 billion pieces for a population of 100 million. <BR/><BR/>Between 1850 and 1880, they collected only half of that for a smaller population, and between 1790 and 1840 it was even less. So 5 billion as a total number of bits of info is certainly possible.<BR/><BR/>RandyRandy Seaverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17477703429102065294noreply@blogger.com