Should I record a Census as a Census or a Residence? When I started recording my tree I recorded the fact that an ancestor was present in census as such. This produced, as expected, a census (`CENS`) record in my `GEDCOM`. After working with my tree on Ancestry for a while I decided to download the tree as a GEDCOM, only to find that all census references I had added were recorded as residence (`RESI`) records with a reference to the census as a source. Is there a 'right' way to record a census event? Should it use a census record or a residence record?

I don't know the actual reason for the switch over but this is entirely wrong and shouldn't have happened.

A census is - as you say - an "event". It has both a place and a date associated with it. It should, therefore, be recorded as an event.

To use the census address as a residential address is an error because many people were not present at their normal residental address on census night. They may have been visiting, lodging, working, travelling, etc.

I don't use Ancestry's trees. Is this reproducible? I'm wondering why no one else has complained about it. Can you add precise details of how you added the census events to your tree?