• The census was compiled by clerks physically visiting homes. If no one was at home at the time of visit, no information was recorded. Particularly in areas populated by immigrants, no second visit was made.
• Language problems caused some information to be recorded incorrectly, particularly if the person interviewed was the wife who was unable to speak English. The census taker was likely to be not well versed in the geography and history of central and eastern Europe. To add to the difficulty, Poland was not an independent country until just before the 1920 Census.
• Unless the person interviewed insisted on designating their origin as Polish, the country of birth, and even language were listed as Austrian, German, Russia or some other country. Many immigrants had spent considerable time in a port in Germany waiting for a ship, adding to misunderstandings.

    Please note that regarding age, the question posed was "How old were you at your last birthday?". I have calculated the year of birth, but it may be later by one year than the actual. To assist those who might wish to do further research and would like to search for Naturalization records, I have indicated whether the person was naturalized at the time of census. "nat" means naturalized, "al" means not.
A "?" indicates difficulty in reading the scanned information.

    I acknowledge the invaluable and drudging work performed by the volunteers of Ancestry.com in scanning the thousands of microfilms into their on-line files, and providing links between names and the actual files. This page would not have been possible without them. The information provided in the tables that follow are extracts. To see the complete records you must go to http://Ancestry.com.

    These records do not provide any information as to the actual birth-place of the immigrants. This information can only be obtained from Naturalization records or from birth certificates. I still believe that the majority of these Biega families originate from the Sanok area in central Galicia, then occupied by Austria, now southern Poland. However, since the end of the 17th century some young people sought relief from poverty in their land-poor villages. Some went to towns offering education, others sought adventure by enrolling in the military, whether in the Austrian forces, or the Napoleonic armies. Thus some of them ended up far from home before they finally embarked on the voyage to America.

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