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- Apr 18, 2019
- Location
- Upstate New York
US Census records are among the most helpful records genealogists in the USA have to work with. But finding each set of records over any individual's life can be a challenge. It's terribly frustrating to have all the facts input correctly and yet have Ancestry tell you no record exists for the family you are certain is there.
Over the years I've developed a set of techniques I use when I can't find the records I'm looking for - even though I know the correct names and locations. Since I assume other folks have had similar challenges, I thought I'd share my tips.
1. Drop the last name. The most common barrier I have in finding Census records is an incorrect last name. These usually occur for one of three reasons: the Census taker misspelled the name in the record, the Census taker's handwriting is illegible and the transcribing of the name was thus done incorrectly, or the record is grouped under the wrong surname. When you think of the huge variety of names used in the United States, many from different ethnic groups with different spelling conventions, it's not surprising that names are wrong in records. Ancestry does a good job using fuzzy logic to guess at misspellings. But sometimes the mistakes are odd enough that the result remains hidden.
2. Drop the birth year. Ancestry is pretty picky about ages and a wrong number in the age field can entirely remove results from a search. Sometimes the number on the form is wrong, sometimes it's been misinterpreted. More often than not the notes for very young children get messed up and their months become years. Removing birth dates will often give you the real result, even though the age is wrong.
3. Search by relationships, not facts. When using specific facts is not working, you can sometimes find the family you want by simply searching for a record that includes the correct combination of Christian names. Looking for every family with a man named Thomas who has a wife named Winifred can pull up the whole family when a more detailed set of search terms didn't work. The more unusual the name, the easier it is since you have fewer results to deal with.
4. Use initials only searches. Ancestry uses asterixis for wild card searching and employing an asterisk can improve search results. This works especially well when names have been oddly abbreviated or misinterpreted. Searching for "J* Cotton" will give you every, John, James, and Joseph, along with a host of others. A search for "Joseph C*" will give a wide range of results in the surname category. You can place the asterisk anywhere in the word - a search for "Jo* Co*" can help narrow results when the list is overwhelming. Fold3 works the same way and it's very helpful.
How does this work in practice? When I'm looking for a missing record in a family on my tree, I usually open up a fresh search panel in Ancestry. I find searching without the facts I already have is very helpful. I generally start by restricting the search to a single location, exactly at or near to where I know the family lived. I then search using a combination of other facts. So if a search for Joseph Cotton born in Mississippi in 1839 and living in Grimes County, Texas doesn't work, I look for every man in the area named Joseph who was born in Mississippi in 1839. Dropping the last name from the search gives me a list of results which I can scan.
If that doesn't work I begin to play with my search terms. Each new search I try comes at the record in a new way, using a different combination of the facts I know. Somewhere in the original record is a mistake that is keeping the record I want from coming up in my search results. All I have to do is to find a combination of search terms that eliminates the error(s) and then I find what I want.
This can be a time consuming process but I rarely end up without the information I want.
Over the years I've developed a set of techniques I use when I can't find the records I'm looking for - even though I know the correct names and locations. Since I assume other folks have had similar challenges, I thought I'd share my tips.
1. Drop the last name. The most common barrier I have in finding Census records is an incorrect last name. These usually occur for one of three reasons: the Census taker misspelled the name in the record, the Census taker's handwriting is illegible and the transcribing of the name was thus done incorrectly, or the record is grouped under the wrong surname. When you think of the huge variety of names used in the United States, many from different ethnic groups with different spelling conventions, it's not surprising that names are wrong in records. Ancestry does a good job using fuzzy logic to guess at misspellings. But sometimes the mistakes are odd enough that the result remains hidden.
2. Drop the birth year. Ancestry is pretty picky about ages and a wrong number in the age field can entirely remove results from a search. Sometimes the number on the form is wrong, sometimes it's been misinterpreted. More often than not the notes for very young children get messed up and their months become years. Removing birth dates will often give you the real result, even though the age is wrong.
3. Search by relationships, not facts. When using specific facts is not working, you can sometimes find the family you want by simply searching for a record that includes the correct combination of Christian names. Looking for every family with a man named Thomas who has a wife named Winifred can pull up the whole family when a more detailed set of search terms didn't work. The more unusual the name, the easier it is since you have fewer results to deal with.
4. Use initials only searches. Ancestry uses asterixis for wild card searching and employing an asterisk can improve search results. This works especially well when names have been oddly abbreviated or misinterpreted. Searching for "J* Cotton" will give you every, John, James, and Joseph, along with a host of others. A search for "Joseph C*" will give a wide range of results in the surname category. You can place the asterisk anywhere in the word - a search for "Jo* Co*" can help narrow results when the list is overwhelming. Fold3 works the same way and it's very helpful.
How does this work in practice? When I'm looking for a missing record in a family on my tree, I usually open up a fresh search panel in Ancestry. I find searching without the facts I already have is very helpful. I generally start by restricting the search to a single location, exactly at or near to where I know the family lived. I then search using a combination of other facts. So if a search for Joseph Cotton born in Mississippi in 1839 and living in Grimes County, Texas doesn't work, I look for every man in the area named Joseph who was born in Mississippi in 1839. Dropping the last name from the search gives me a list of results which I can scan.
If that doesn't work I begin to play with my search terms. Each new search I try comes at the record in a new way, using a different combination of the facts I know. Somewhere in the original record is a mistake that is keeping the record I want from coming up in my search results. All I have to do is to find a combination of search terms that eliminates the error(s) and then I find what I want.
This can be a time consuming process but I rarely end up without the information I want.
Bringing the