Anyone Do Genealogy?

[Mojo Chick'n]

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That helped me, too - I was living in Grand Rapids, and all my family was in Ionia County, Eaton county and Kent county. I even went to visit graves and got headstone pics.

 

[Mojo Chick'n]

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What is really confusing is when you find extras living at the same address

had that happen a couple times.

 

[Backyard Buddies]

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There are many reasons why this happens - the first being that they aren't there. Sometimes people were simply missed when the enumerator came knocking.

However, more often, they're hidden. Perhaps the page was damaged or unreadable. It could have been transcribed incorrectly so that the last name isn't recognizable to you. There may be a situation where they're living with another family and were accidentally listed under the surname of the host family. Or they moved and you are looking for them in the wrong place. (Yes, people did move away and back again).

There are several tricks to use to find them. In the 10 years I've been doing this, I've uncovered all kinds of things that were quite tricky to do. Yet, despite that, I've still got one I can't find in 1860 and another one that goes missing for 2 censuses, only to turn up in another state 30 years after his last record. It happens.

 

[Mojo Chick'n]

Also - the census ---

Most of them were hand written by people they hired or who volunteered - and they didn't always get things right. For instance, in three different census my GG Grandfather has his name spelled 3 dif ways

The census takers were usually in too big a rush to ask them to spell it properly - or perhaps accents and broken english prevented a proper spelling if they did ask.

Granted, he had an odd name for the time and place, but they spelled it in such odd ways that it was a bit of a surprize at first.

btw - his name was Fernando Cortez Kinney - everyone called him FC
(his siblings had odd names, also - their mother or father must have been into odd names)

One census taker spelled it Phirnando

meri

 

[Backyard Buddies]

Mojo Chick'n :

Also - the census ---
One census taker spelled it Phirnando

That's hilarious!!! I have also found some very odd things. I think the best one that I've got is the 1900 census of my g-grandmother and family. So many problems!
The surname of the head of household is not transcribed properly.
The middle initial of his wife is wrong (probably her English accent hearing an A when and E was said)
Her year of immigration is incorrect. (edited to add that this has her still in England while she was giving birth to children in Illinois).
The surname of the children is unreadable.
They're listed as daughters instead of step-daughters.
One of the daughters is listed as a white male. Come on! Her name is Pearl and she's listed as a daughter, not a son.
And the best one of all - a lodger in the home is listed as 28 years old and born in Illinois. However, while he was born in 1872 in Illinois, he pulled off the amazing feat of immigrating to this country in 1870!

So, this brings up the other possible reason why census records are sometimes wrong - The enumerator was drunk!!!

 

[Meaniellinguine]

Yes..I love Genealogy!! We live about 45 minutes form the FT WAYNE indiana library that has a HUGE genealogy sections in the area....

This is what I have done.... When I have researched 8+ generations to all over the world...I will call the Historical Society in the towns I have found families memebers to come from...Newspapers...Health Departments, Court houses...its amazing where all I have found information about family at....also you can find the LDS church in your area and you can order micro reels from the UTAH mother ship of Genealogy...

 

[Backyard Buddies]

Or, you can make an excuse to GO TO UTAH!

A few summers ago, my husband had to be there for business. We made a detour and while hubby and the kids went to the zoo and played in the pool, I went to the library for 2 days! I met up with a long time online genealogy buddy, a far distant cousin with whom I've worked for years. We'd arrive when they opened the doors and stay until they threw us out. I hope to do that again sometime, but for now she and I are working on her brother's Y-DNA data. Now, THAT'S a whole new avenue of research!

 

[cwc362]

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Try looking up a yahoo group that does Genealogy- A lot of time they have members who will do look ups for you through the paid sites if they have a subscription. Good Luck!!

 

[Backyard Buddies]

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Try looking up a yahoo group that does Genealogy- A lot of time they have members who will do look ups for you through the paid sites if they have a subscription. Good Luck!!

Absolutely! I highly recommend Genealogy4Dummies at YahooGroups. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Genealogy4Dummies/
I've been a member of that list for nearly 10 years. There're very helpful members there and just like the BYC family, we often get off topic, even sometimes talking about CHICKENS!!!

 

[Mojo Chick'n]

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I would love to visit the Utah LDS library.

I did "meet" a distant cousin while doing the research. He needed some info that it took me 4 years to track down - and he had less to start with than I did, so I gave him all my research - I thought he was gonna bust with joy

(his ancestor was the older brother to my GGG Grandfather)

He then took a trip to Canada to get pics of gravesites of his line, and he sent me the pics.

Oh, one other thing that helped me with that line - study Naming Practices for the time period - often the eldest sons were named after previous family members - for instance, the first two sons born in my GGG Grandfather's line (the one just mentioned) were named after their maternal grandfather and great grandfather - their first and middle names were the other Grandfather's first and last names - ie; Thomas Tindal Ingall and Richard Stillman Ingall - it made it easier to find which mother "Mary Ingall" or "Sarah Ingall" was part of that line, too (lots of mary's and sarahs back then

)

meri