Each town hall kept a "Register of citizens", which listed all individuals with the right of domicile in that community. These registers were recorded either in a book or on index cards. The second variant was more typical for towns, because it was better suited for quick look ups and alphabetic sorting. It is important to note that only people with the right of domicile are listed. If a person or family lived in the place, even for a long time, but did not have the right of domicile there, they are not listed. One must search in the register of citizens where they had the right of domicile. Registers of citizens are sometimes more informative then census records, since they kept a running inventory of all individuals, whereas the census enumerations only give a snapshot of the community approximately every ten years. Registers of citizens list all members including deceased ones and those who moved away.