Census Information before 1900's

The census information you find can be very valuable in searching your family.  When you find a page that has a relative on it, my very first suggestion is to scan through the page before and the page after it as well.  And if it is a small amount of pages, do the whole district. WHY? Because many people lived by their relatives. Their farms were normally connected in rural areas. In cities, you can find a relative just a few blocks away.

So you may wonder what can you find on a census? The information changes from year to year.  The first census in the United States took place  in 1790 in the original 13 States, district of Vermont, Kentucky, Maine and the area known as Tennessee now.   This census was very vague.  It had  6 items asked, name of head of the household, the number of persons in each household with the following descriptions (no names).  

• Free White males of 16 years and upward 
• Free White males under 16 years
• Free White females
• All other free persons
• Slaves

This census has Zadock Ingalls & William Bell  both  Grandparents down the line....

The Second census was taken in 1800 of all the States plus territories of the Mississippi.  This census was very similar to the first census, but had addition columns for ages. It listed the Head of Household plus the following age columns: 

• Free white males/females in under 10, 10 but under 15, 16 but under 25, 25 but under 45, and over 45. 
• Indians
• Slaves
• Free blacks

This 1800 Census has Zadoc Ingall and William Bell again.

Census was taken every 10 years, some States would have special census in between if needed.  The 1820 Census was the first to ask the question if the head of household was engaged in agriculture, commerce or manufacturing.  However, the 1830 census had a lot of flaws in how it was being taken, and it only counted the population and they didn't ask about the industry in which they head of household worked in.

This is the 1820 Census with Zadock Ingall

The 1850 census is an important document because every free person's name was to be listed, not just the head of the household. Addition information was also asked about taxes, schools, crime, wages, and value of the estate.  It was also the first time that showed the subdividing of districts into "known civil divisions," such as counties, townships, or wards.

This has my GGGGgrandfather George Appleby  and his family in 1850.

The 1870 Census was redesigned because of the end of the Civil War and Slavery questions.  

It states Names, then asks about morality (married, single...), Agriculture, products of industry (labor), 

and Social Statistics. (school/writing/reading)

The 1890 census more subject questions about ownership and indebtedness of farms and homes; It asked about names of surviving Union Soliders and names of widows that died. This is also the first census that dealt more with race with entries such as  "Japanese"  "Negro," "mulatto," and "white" to name a few.

This information gets you through the 1800's. Next up will be the more detailed census information in the 1900's.

Crazy Census

I am sorry I have been neglecting my Blog spot!  I have a lot to say on my next topic, which is census...but I feel I don't want to write about it yet, because newly available to everyone is the 1940 census! We've waited along time for this to come out.  I haven't even taken a look yet because all the "freebie" people are slowing it down, so I'm waiting.  I want to be able to talk about the 1940 when I write.  So with that...I charge you with this.....get a list of people that you haven't been able to research, those lost in time. Make a list of odd names in your tree. These are the names I'll teach you to find first in your search... I'll write soon!

Church Records

You can get a lot of useful information 

from church records

CHURCH RECORDS – If you are aware of the town an ancestor is from, check out the local churches.  Most people attended church in small communities.  Your ancestors might have even started a church.  My family in Upper Michigan started two church's and one is still in operation, the other I believe is gone.  

Churches will keep records for baptisms, marriages, and death records.  You can then confirm the information you find at the church with the County Clerk Office at the County Seat.  Some churches, like the Finnish church's here in America kept in touch with the towns that the people immigrated from, and shared information.  This way people that still had family in the "old country" would know what is going on here in America.

Church records will give you mother and father's names. It will give you ages of the people when the are getting baptized or married.  Death registers will give you the place they died and buried. Sometimes if your able to scan through the membership rolls you can find aunts and uncles to your ancestors because church was a family affair.  

Some churches have a cemetery on site. Walk it! Photograph it! You will find a connection if your ancestor lived in town!

  

Some foreign countries keep excellent church records. Some records have been destroyed because of wars or floods, or just poor care.  The Mormon Church (LDS) has been very good at collecting this data and putting it on their website.  It is a wonderful free service!

You can find similar information by going through family Bibles or scrapbooks.  When you go through wedding cards or registers, you can find names of family members that were celebrating important events.  

Be sure to ask to look at birth certificates, baptism certificates, death certificates that loved ones may have in their records.  Even hospital certificates have useful information.  

INDIAN RESERVATION RECORDS – a lot of families “think” they have “indian   blood” but it is very difficult to prove.  You have to look at Indian Rolls of the reservations.  The hard thing is if your family member left the tribe, they would be considered an outcast.  At that point they would change their name.

Next: CENSUS....this is a biggy!

Newspaper Articles and Obituaries

Many people feel when they hear to check out newspapers for genealogy information, that they mean looking for obituaries.  However, there are other newspaper articles that can be fascinating and informative.  The above articles talk about orchestra wins in our family and about accidents.

You can find many things such as anniversary and wedding information from articles, which will include other family members names and locations from where they traveled from.  You can find out about fires, people going to jail (I have one where my great grandfather went to jail for a period of time for stealing chickens!).  You can find out achievements in work related items and school achievements.  Sometimes if your lucky there could be photos as well.

You can find some fantastic news about live saving events of a family member! And I'm thrilled to have her as my genealogy cousin!!

You can find city directory articles, which will tell you where they lived and sometimes where they worked as well.  It is a good way to track where members lived and what their occupation was. Sometimes the occupation can give you a clue of where to look for them. Example if they were farmers, you can look at plat maps in the area to find where they lived or what they farmed.

You can find articles in books on soldiers.  This will give you what their ranks were, where they served, and where they were from. This can give you many clues to obtain other records on their service such as pension records.

  

The main item when searching newspapers are obituaries.  Obituaries are as good as the person giving the information, so make sure you always verify the information! Source it too.  You can get maiden names from obituaries, which are so important for women!  They usually give parents, and sometimes grandparent information. This information is a great step in the right direction. They will name siblings. Make sure you  research each sibling because that might lead to more information on the family. If there is a more unusual name, search that first.  The more unusual name the easier to narrow your search down.

next time: Church records and other information to search.

Cemetery Records

Cemetery records are very important, especially if there are small cemeteries located in the area your researching.  Walking a cemetery, you can discover other links to your tree.  I have a cemetery in Upper Michigan where a lot of my family descendants are buried.  My Grandparents, my great grandparents, my great great grandparents and there brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles too.  So i have walked the cemetery, took photographs of almost the entire cemetery, and then started to connect the dots. I'd say about 80% of this cemetery are related in one way or another!

Some tips when visiting a cemetery:
  If there is a records office on site, visit th
em and find out what they require for you to look up information.

  Walking a cemetery, bring a notebook and camera.  You may want to draw out the layout of the cemetery or download an aerial view of the cemetery if your able from Google Earth or Bing Maps.    This will help when you want to connect family plots.

  Take care when you are walking on private property or abandon cemeteries!  Never enter private cemeteries without permission. Never go to remote cemeteries alone.  Never go in wooded cemeteries during hunting season!

Some unmarked graves next to people will be infants that probably died.  This could be hard to find out depending the time period.

This stone shows he was in the Civil War with 16 Iowa infantry Co. E

This shows Wilhart was in the US Coast Guard during WWII. 

Watch for icons on the plots. Military or religious symbols can be found.  Sometimes you can get lucky with a photo.

next time....obituary search and newspaper searching.....

Document Search

There are so many documents that a person can use when searching. Of course the number one document that everyone thinks of are census records. Yes, you can get loads of information from them. Names, number of people in the family at that point in time, who was doing what as an occupation, can they read, were they married, where they were born, where the parents were born.   These records are becoming so much easier to search because more and more are getting transcribed.  Many genealogists can't wait till next year because the 1910 census will be available!

I'm going to talk about a few other documents to search that can be helpful too. These are other pieces to the puzzle.

Maps are a big piece to the puzzle! You can get an idea of what life was like when looking at town maps, census maps, county maps, and war maps to name a few.  

County maps are wonderful because when families were migrating across the county, you can check off the path and see where they went and where they possibly could go.

Ware maps are good so see where the soldiers walked or rode their horses.  They can show the different forts and battlefields. This can help when trying to follow muster rolls.  

Township maps are good to show what property was owned. The older maps have names written on them and you can look at surrounding farms to see the connections in families because many people married people on near by farms.

Other documents to search are military records!  

Military records can describe the person in detail; height, weight, hair color, eye color...so much more. This can help paint a picture in your mind or in helping identify old photographs.  

You can find some military information online, but most need to be retrieved from actual documents that might be in the families possession, or you may have to contact the nation archives for military records. It will cost you to receive a copy of them, but could be well worth it.  All records are different in what is in the file. There are military records and pension records.  I have found both to be helpful, but pension records can give you more family information.  I have actually received copies for civil war vet and there was a letter written by my great great grandmother asking for information.

Many of these records will tell you when they joined and where they were discharged. They tell  you what there positions were in the military. It can show you training, jobs, and medals they could have been awarded. They also show where they were deployed or war they participated in.

next time:  cemetery records......

Who, What, When, Where, How and Why?

There are many things you need to ask yourself when you are researching your tree.  Stick to what you learned in school, I call the basic six: who, what, when, where, how and why.

 

Pick a person your going to research, get the documentation infront of you, or get that photograph book and ask yourself these questions, and what you can't answer, you know you need to research farther.

 

The important ones:
Who? Who are you going to research, what is her or his name, including married name.

 

Next? When and Where? What was the date of birth and where were they born. This will help you research this person and other people in the family. Find the census records of that time period. Look for land records or newspaper clippings.

 

When you know the "where", you can usually then locate a local church if it is a small town. You can research baptism records, or even death records.  You can see if the church has a local cemetery as well. You can locate plot information and walk the cemetery. Sometimes when its a really small town, you can connect alot of dots together with all the names, so you may want to record all the plot information you can.  You can check with the church not only for baptism and death records, but ask about marriage certificates as well.  If your church is affiliated with another church in another country, that might help you make some connections. For example, when people came from Finland to America, they were still very connected to their home churches in Finland. When something happened in America, like a marriage, birth or death, the churches would both update their records of these events. This would help the family members that could not make the trip, but stay connected through the churches.

 

When you find a small town, check with the local schools as well to old records or yearbooks. Small towns also had small businesses. Chek with the local government offices and see if your relative worked in town. Did they work for the local post office? grocery store? fire department?  Most people didn't travel as far as people do today for a job.

 

When you find the who, what, when, and where, you can work on the how and why.  How did they get to this town, how did they travel there. Connect the dots with census records or land records.  Military records will tell you a lot. It will list family members and where the pension went.  Then figure out the Why. Why did they move to this area? Was it for jobs, was it because other family members lived there already, was it because of religious reasons, or ethnic reasons? 

 

Now you have the basics, whats next? write your story or fact chain on this person! 

 

Whats next you ask?    Where can you look for information?

 

Here are some FREE sites!

—Google Ethnic newspapers websites    

—Rootsweb.com

—Ancestry.com

—Tribalpages.com

—Ellisisland.org

—Cyndislist.com
—Familysearch.org  (LDS)
—Genealogy.com
—Newenglandancestors.org
—Footnote.com (images of documents)
—Islandnet.com (Canada search)
—Theshiplist.com (ship manifest/wreck info)

 

Some other great sites, but some will charge to search or get information:

• Ancestry.com
• Genealogylinks.net
• Genealogysearch.org (has over 50,000 links for you to look at)
• Loc.gov/rr/genealogy (library of congress)
• usgenweb.org (ordered by state, then county or cities)
• accessgenealogy.com (native american links)
• obitarchive.org (this has alot of obits, but it isn't free, try all your free sites first!)
• Wikapedia.com
• Britannia.com/history
• timeref.com
• genealogienetz.de/misc/emig/gta-holdings  (this lists germans to america)
• itd.nps.gov/cwss (civil war soldiers)
• census.gov/prod/www/abs/decennial/1790.htm (census bureau 1790 census)

 

 

Don't forget about all those great map sites too! Bing, google, nationalgeographic, digitalglobe.

 

A great way to share and keep in touch....yes, FACEBOOK!!

 

Next Blog --Document Search Help!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Name Game

I know it has been a while since I've written. Life has been changing for me at a fast pace, but going in a good direction right now.  So, we need to continue with our genealogy lessons.  This blog is about the Name Game.  There are alot of problems when it comes to names and researching! 

When you enter  in a program, stay consistent because of the alpha index . See how the program tells you to enter: first name/last name or last name / first name

—James “Jimmy” Robert Smith

—James Robert JR Smith

—James Robert Smith, JR

—James Robert II Smith

—James KING Smith

—James Robert  “KING” Smith

—James Robert “Capt.” Smith

—Smith, James Robert “Capt.”

 

Just stay consistent!  It will make it  easier when your searching thru your index, especially when it gets large!


Do you use middle names?

—Yes, because a lot of people in the 1700’s and 1800’s like to go by their middle name instead of first name. Nicknames were popular, especially for women.

Are you having problems locating a family? Search not by the father or mother, search by the most unusual name...example: Theophilus Smith is easier to search and narrow down then John Smith. 

When entering women, always enter their names by using their maiden name, not married name.

When searching in another country, learn their name game, such as - is it custom to name first son after father or grandfather?  If so, then you know the name of the father or grandfather, when you have a son's name.  Does any part of the name mean anything? Example in Finland and Scandinavia countries : Ellia Jonsdotter means Ellia is Jon’s daughter - so now you know the first name of Ellia. 

If your not sure if the name is male or female, check your program on how to enter it.  Example, Family Tree Maker, you use a "?" and then it has no designation till you change it.

Name Problems?

*Married more than once:  Some problems in searching could be when a person is married more than once, especially women, because it can be complicated.  You need to watch what is a maiden name and what is a former married name.  Most programs will also help you keep the names straight with the spouses in different areas, which is very helpful.  Make sure you keep the children under the correct parents as well.

 *Adoption or Step Parents:  Be very clear and careful on your selection if a parent is a step parent or adoption has taken place.  Most programs will have a selection for these cases.

*Child born without parents being married:  Child should be listed with parent that raised him or her and then you make decision on connection choices.

 

Biggest point: stay consistant - learn the name game!

 

Next time: When Where Why What How.....

 

—

Basics of Genealogy - Part 3

So, now it is time to start gathering information and asking people in your family questions.  So how should you go about this? There are several things you can do. First you need to figure out who your going to interview or ask information from. After you decide this, then you have to pick the best way to go about it. Most 90 year old Aunties are not going to be on a computer, so you will have to either call them, meet in person or write a letter.  Here are some clues of what to do.

First who should you ask?  You should start with people that are elders in your family. They will remember the furtherest back. However, it can be hard to get information from your elders because depending on their age, they might not remember alot, or just partial information.  It might not be easy to get information from them, depending on how close they live to you.  But try, it will be worth it! 

So how should you ask? 
*Depending on where they live, you can either write a letter with questions, where they can fill in the blanks. 
*You can do it in person if possible. If you do, video tape or record the conversation (with their permission ofcouse). 
*You can prepare a notebook of pages of questions, they can take their time in filling it out. Start with childhood memories and work to the future. 
*You can look through photo books with your family members.  Ask questions of who the people are, it will always spark a memory!  You can estimate the date of the photos by the people, in what they are wearing.
*Bibles - ask if there is a family Bible that anyone might have kept with births, deaths, and marriages.
*Go through family scrapbooks. Look at marriage registrations or wedding cards.

The name game - when your talking with your family, make sure you are getting the full name of people. Polly's real name may be Margaret.  Mia's real name may be Philomia. Theo might be Theophilus.  This will be important when your searching records.

Middle names are important because there was a time when people where named after family members, but went by their middle names so there wasn't confusion (at the time).

Last names might have changed spellings along the way, so make sure that you keep track of the timeline of changes.

Make sure your consistant on how you enter you names in your system. You want to stay consistant, so when your searching it makes it easier.  You may not want those hard name spellings, but infact they are great for searching on data bases. 

Next time I'll blog about Name Problems

Basics of Genealogy - here it is Part 2

Now I'll blog about Sources and Charts.  These are very important when you are just starting genealogy research. 

Sources:
This is a critical error I made at the start. I never sourced my information when I first started. Why you might ask...because 1) didn't realize why I should 2)  I was doing it on paper.....why do it?  I'll tell you why and give you examples.

 Once you decide that you want to publish your work on a public site or a semi private site, you will get questions sent to you...."where did you find that" "who told you that" "what book was that listed in" "Where, When, What, Who....".   If you don't source it, you can't answer the questions.  You also can't give credit where credit is due!  Another good reason to source is maybe down the line you find an error in the information, you can send the corrections to the person or place you found it from.  Most programs will give you the information needed to source. Just fill in the blanks.  If your doing it on paper, items you'll want to make notes on are:  Name of the person who gave you the info and what is their address.  What book did you find it in? Page?  Did you find it on a website or a link to family site?  If you correspond with someone, note their e-mails. 

An example is if a researcher want to know where you found certain persons birth information.
**Did you get it from a birth certificate? Do you have a copy?
**Did you get it from a tombstone? Do you have a picture? 
**Or was the info passed down through family information?
All of this is important because if there is a dispute, that sourced information will help straighten it out.

Charts:
There are so many charts that programs can generate for you.  Charts are great when you want to look at the big picture of a family line or if you want to share your information with someone.  There are many different kinds of charts you can do, and I'll give you some examples.

**Pedigree charts relay information.  You can start with what you know and work your way forward or backwards.  You can pick a specific ancestor and work towards the present.  Use pedigree charts and family group sheets to share your information with others in an easy format.  Programs give you a great outline for this.

**You can do a memoir or narrative story.  When you write a story this way, it can be enjoyable for people to read about a person or family.  Most people use this type of chart when they have a specific person or family to write about. You generally don't do it for everyone in the family.

**You can do a pictorial history.  A collection of photos of people and events in a family's history can be so visually appealing and a fun way to talk about a family.  You can put the photos in chronological order and you can even add biographical stories or descriptions of the events to complement the photos.
You can include a number of items about a person or family. You can add people, homes, schools, tombstones, churches, castles, farms, aerial views, wedding, etc.  This can be alot of fun!  You can even these days send this info to a website and have books made easily for gifts!

I choose to use a combination of styles for charts in my family histories.  When you start to put charts and information together, begin by searching what is available. Look on-line, check family bibles, check with family members. Check if anything has been published already on your family.  You can even team up with other researchers so your not duplicating searches.

When your doing your charts and searches, limit yourself to what you want to include in your tree. How far off the path do you want to go.  Decide how extended you want to go.  Sometimes it is beneficial to go off the path because you might intersect again, but sometimes it can be a waste of time and space. 

When your saving "stories", if you can't verify them, make sure you mention that in your notes/sources.  Did the actual person tell you this about themselves or was it a grandchild?  Example, my grandmother told me a story about how she almost died from her hat getting tangles in a car wheel.  Now if someone else told me this, it would be second hand and details can get changed.

  Learn how to follow a timeline! This can be very helpful when doing a biographical chart of a persons life.  When you know the birth  and death dates of a family, use these dates to fill in additional information.
** What was happening during that time period? war’s, weather related events (tornado's, snow storms, hurricanes), Great Depression, inventions, type of government in place. 
This will help and give you clues.  Sometimes you will have to make hunches, but make note of them.  Follow up with it later. In time, you may be able to back up your hunch with a document or news article.

Next up: Interviews and the Name Game......