Curators at Kean University in New Jersey recently found a population count of the United States from an "actual enumeration" conducted at least four years before the country's first official census in 1790.

The handwritten tally was found among the papers of John Kean, a delegate to the 1787 Constitutional Convention, which met in Philadelphia and gave birth to the Constitution. A central issue delegates tackled was how to configure a new Congress that would more fairly represent the disparate populations of the 13 states.

A heading on Kean's enumeration says it was presented to the Constitutional Convention. The count appears to have been conducted by the states separately between 1781 and 1786, apparently in person.

According to the count, 2.2 million whites and Indians — they were not broken into separate categories — and 567,000 blacks were living in the 13 states. According to Kean's ledger, most of the state censuses were limited to questions about gender, age and race — a format repeated in the 1790 census.

For the past three weeks, Joseph Dowd has walked through sections of this town, knocking on doors and asking residents 10 questions, over and over again.

"Sometimes you have to ask even basic questions," said Dowd, 67. "Like, 'Mary, are you a female?' There could be a cross-gender situation."