Even with the advent of computerized indexes and digitized images, people aren't always easy to locate in the census. They may have been overlooked by the census taker or been in route from one location to another at the time the census was taken. More likely, however, is that the person is just "misplaced" -- in the census under a misspelled name, the wrong surname, or a location that you weren't expecting. Before giving up the search for your ancestor in the census, make sure you've tried these 10 Search Tips for Census Success.

Think you're already an expert at searching the census? Michael John Neill has started up his fun census search contest again at Rootsdig.com. Be the first to locate Hank Williams Sr. or B. B. King in the 1930 U.S. Census and win a copy of Family Tree Maker.