The Family Tree Problem Solver: Tried-And-True Tactics for Tracing Elusive Ancestors (10 page)
Read The Family Tree Problem Solver: Tried-And-True Tactics for Tracing Elusive Ancestors Online
Authors: Marsha Hoffman Rising
Tags: #Non-Fiction
The researcher must also watch for double names or prefixes that are read and indexed incorrectly.
Example:
Amos Hill Briant should have been Amos Hillbrant, John D. Rosset should have been John Derosset, John P. Pool should have been John Pettipool, and Mathew M. Peak should have been Mathew McPeak.
5.
Another problem with compiled censuses is the ditto mark (″) that census enumerators often used to designate repeats. One who compiles the census may attempt to be helpful by translating those ditto marks into surnames, but this may mislead the researcher. For example, in the 1850 printed census of Greene County, Missouri, the publisher substituted a surname for the ditto marks; thus households #1619, #1620, and #1621 all appeared to be named Johnson.
#1618 | Thomas Simmons, age 63, born North Carolina |
#1619 | Bethena Johnson, age 28, born Tennessee |
#1620 | Michael Johnson, age 26, born Missouri |
#1621 | Amos Johnson, age 24, born Tennessee |
The microfilmed copy of the census shows that the elder man was named Simmons, members of household #1619 were named
Johnson
, and households #1620 and #1621 were dittos — presumably of
Johnson
. However, because at least two of the younger persons listed, Bethena and Amos, are known to be Thomas Simmons's children, the census taker must have meant the dittos to indicate copies of
Simmons
rather than of
Johnson
. Bethena Johnson had been born a Simmons but was widowed; Amos was her brother. When the census taker used the ditto marks, he made a mistake; the publication compounded his error.
| GREENE COUNTY, MISSOURI, CASS TOWNSHIP (HEADS OF HOUSEHOLD ONLY) | |
#1618 | Thomas Simmons, age 63, born North Carolina |
#1619 | Bethena Johnson, age 28, born Tennessee |
#1620 | Michael” , age 26, born Missouri |
#1621 | Amos” , age 24, born Tennessee |
6.
An index may omit part of or even an entire county.
Examples:
The 1870 Collin County, Texas, census is covered on two microfilm reels, but the second roll was omitted from the index. The 1830 Marion County, Tennessee, census was omitted by the indexers; the 1870 Putnam County, Missouri, census also was overlooked. Only 128 families are indexed on Automated Archives CD-ROM 1830 index for Hamilton County, Tennessee, but 354 heads of household were listed on the actual census. Researchers are probably aware of dozens more examples.
The following examples refer to situations where the individuals and families being sought actually appear in the census, but not as the researcher might expect. This may be because members of the family were given the wrong name on the census, or because of the way the census itself was recorded or copied.
1.
One of the reasons that people may be hidden in a census is that all household members were once assigned the surname of the head of household. This problem often occurred in households that sociologists now call a “blended family,” that include members of the extended family. Perhaps not only the nuclear husband, wife, and children resided there, but also widowed daughters and their children, stepchildren, mothers- or fathers-in-law, or other more distant relatives. In many cases, all these were listed under the surname of the head of the household.
Example:
Four children of Absalom Looney were listed under the surname
Asher
while living with their stepfather in 1850. In another case, Elizabeth Moore and her son, J.H. Moore, were given the surname
Redman
when enumerated with Elizabeth's father, Joel Redman, in 1850. Elizabeth Folks was living with her son-in-law, Vincent Thompson, in Smith County, Tennessee, in 1850, and was listed under the name of
Thompson
.
Too often, beginning genealogists assume that all children living in a household with a married couple are the couple's biological children. Carefully study the members of the household, and do not assign children to parents simply because they live together. This common mistake can lead to many false conclusions about parentage.
Eli and Susannah Cheek were listed in 1850 in Dallas County, Missouri, in dwelling #384. She was fifty-three years old and Eli was fifty-five. Also living in the household were James Cheek, age seventeen, born in Tennessee; James Patterson, age ten, and Mildred Patterson, age eight, both born in Missouri. A submitter to the LDS Ancestral File assigned the latter two children the middle name
Patterson
and the surname
Cheek
, making it appear as though they were children of Eli and Susanna Cheek. A more careful genealogist would have noticed the large gap between James Cheek and the Patterson children, and realized that it was unlikely for two living brothers only seven years apart in age both to be named James. Moreover, Susannah Cheek would have been forty-five years old when Mildred was born; and although it is not impossible for a woman to give birth at that age, it is unlikely. Instead, Mildred and James Patterson were probably Susannah's grandchildren by daughter Mary Cheek Patterson — who was not even mentioned in the Ancestral File as a daughter of Eli and Susannah. Apparently, James and Mildred Patterson were raised by their grandparents. Mary is not listed in the county under the surname Cheek or Patterson in 1850, although she had returned by 1860.
2.
Before 1850, only the heads of households were listed on the census; everyone else in the residence was recorded with nothing more than a slash mark. These slashes, of course, represent more “hidden” individuals — particularly women who often went from their father's home to their husband's without ever becoming a head of household. Although we can never be absolutely certain that the individuals who are counted by slash marks are the people we suspect them to be, we should not ignore the possibility. If we proceed with our research as if these people did not exist because they are not specifically named in a census, we lose valuable clues to information found in other records. If those sources indicate that an individual was living in the community when the census was taken, trying to find the household in which the individual was living can lead to establishing relationships, sometimes even parentage.
Example:
In 1830, Elijah Dyer was undoubtedly the forty-to-fifty-year-old male living in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, with his eighty-to-ninety-year old father, Haman Dyer, who remained the head of household. Elijah Dyer of Miller County, Missouri, would have fit into that category at that time; his father is believed to be Haman Dyer, and tax records indicate Elijah was living in the county, although he was not listed as a head of household.
Example:
In 1840, Sarah McNew was not a head of household in Rives County, Missouri. However, she sold land there in December 1840 and paid taxes in 1845. She is surely the fifty-to-sixty-year-old woman listed as living with her son, Frederick McNew, in the 1840 census.
3.
Young people new to a community and living with unidentified relatives may easily become hidden in a census. However, you can't simply assume that they were missed by the census taker, even though positive identification may be difficult because of the limited information that is available on them. For instance, a man may be listed on the tax lists so you know he is living in the community, but not listed as a head of household.
The obvious place to look is a male of the right age listed with his paternal family. The next place is a male of the right age listed with his maternal family. The next place to consider is with in-laws, if he was newly married. Knowing the collateral family may help you determine which slash mark could be the man you seek. You may never find a “hidden” individual on the census, but supplementary records can reveal he was living in the community.
See chapter four for the case of Isaac J. Murry and the importance of locating him on the 1840 census, when he was not a head of household.
Example:
Silas Baker was an unmarried schoolteacher in Greene County, Missouri, in the 1840s. Customarily, teachers lived with various families during the school year. From other records Silas is known to have been in the county in 1840, but the household in which he was living cannot be identified. He died before the next census, so his age can only be estimated from his activities without the aid of the census.
4.
Census enumerators sometimes mangled and scrambled names so badly that a mother would not be able to recognize a listing for her own child. Using phonetic spelling can help you find a hidden ancestor. How does the name
sound
when pronounced? Another method for locating a lost ancestor is to scout out the entire township where you think he should be, as well as the surrounding communities. Scroll through each page carefully to see if he might be listed under a garbled name.
Example:
A county history said that in 1835, Jonas Brown and his son-in-law, Williamson Foster, moved from Kentucky to Prairie Hollow, Missouri. I thought this would be easy to verify; I simply had to find a county on the census index in Kentucky where a Brown and a Foster were listed together. That didn't work. No Jonas Brown, no Williamson Foster listed in the state. I did find a “Jones Brown,” but there were no Foster families in that county on the census. More research produced the county where Jonas's daughter was said to have married. I found the marriage record for Nancy Brown and Williamson Foster in Clark County, Kentucky. I then returned to the census for that county. I found “Jones Brown” and next to him “Williamson Austin.” The census taker didn't miss them; he just misunderstood the names. Williamson Foster was hidden under the name Austin.
Use phonetic (or creative) spelling when entering search queries into CD-ROMs or Internet databases, particularly for those individuals with unusual first names.
5.
In most cases, the federal census records you will examine are government copies of documents written in the field. As Kathleen W. Hinckley notes in her book,
Your Guide to the Federal Census
(Cincinnati: Betterway Books, 2002), “The original manuscript is the one the census marshal carried when he questioned local residents. Depending on the law at the time, handwritten copies of these manuscripts were made prior to their distribution to government officials. Unfortunately, it is nearly impossible to know whether records we examine today are the originals or copies.” When handwritten copies were made it would have been easy for errors to occur, such as skipping family members, moving slashes into the wrong rows, or placing individuals within the wrong family. Human error can lead to a number of problems with the census, so the researcher needs to remain alert.
6.
Crucial parts of the name or enumeration might be missing or obliterated. Abbreviations may be used for the first names, or a last name may be missing entirely. The letters may be smudged or parts of the household overlooked or combined with a household to whom they do not belong. The family may give middle names or nicknames that you do not recognize. Be sure you know the nicknames common to the era and to the ethnic groups with which you are working: Nancy/Agnes, Martha/Patsy, Mary/Polly, Biddy/Obedience, Bridget/Delia, Milly/Emeline/Melissa, Gus/Augustine, Abe/Abraham, Bony/Bonaparte, Kit/Christopher, Iggy/Ignatius, or Ed, Ted, or Ned for Edmund, Edward, or Edwin. It is not unusual for the census taker simply to have copied the names incorrectly.
See Ruth Land Hatten, CGRS, “Finding ‘Missing Men’ on Early Census Records: The Example of Thomas Russell,”
National Genealogical Society Quarterly
81 (March 1993) 46–50.
Example:
Jason Ashworth was listed in 1860 in Polk County, Missouri, as “James” Ashworth. The lack of any other records from that vicinity for a man named James Ashworth prove that the census taker or copier simply must have made a mistake and that “James” was actually Jason.
Example:
Greenberry was often shortened to “Green” or “G.B.,” Ebenezer to “Eb,” which could easily be misread as “Eli,” and Constantine to “Tine.”
7.
You may be looking for the right man in the wrong place.
Before 1850, geographical boundaries were unclear, jurisdictions could overlap, and county and state lines often changed from decade to decade.
Example:
Isaac Rogers lived in St. Clair County, Missouri, in 1840, which was then called Rives. He was buried in Hickory County, but he was enumerated on the 1840 census in Polk County.
Example:
James Harrison was one of the first settlers at the mouth of the Little Piney River in Missouri, arriving about 1817. While James did not move from the location where he first settled, the counties in that area were dividing rapidly. He was taxed first in Franklin County in 1819. When Gasconade County was formed in 1821, he became justice of the peace for Boone Township. Crawford County was formed in 1829, and James became clerk of the probate; his home became a pioneer courthouse. James was listed in Crawford County in 1830, the first surviving census for Missouri. By 1840 his place of residence was in Pulaski County, and he was head of household there. James left a will dated 28 August 1836, in which he called himself “of Crawford County.” The will was proved in 1842 in Pulaski County. In 1857, the area where the Harrisons had settled in 1817 became Phelps County and remains so, the same house having been in five different county jurisdictions.
