Researchers will be confused and disappointed by the fact that Richmond County, NC is not listed as available for the 1840 U. S. Census. Somehow the county was misindefined as Rutherford County, NC in the index for the census database. If, for example, researchers want to find residents in Fair Ground District of Richmond County, they won't find them unless they trip over the Rutherford County mislabeling as I did. I hope that this error report gets to someone who can provide a remedy. I reported this problem today as an issue when using the "Rutherford County" index, but nothing changed when I did the same thing some years ago. This is the first time I've used this message board, so have had some difficulty finding the right place to leave a message. Hope this helps.