Use Pre-1850 US Census Records to Research Genealogy Brick Wall

Use early US census records to provide valuable clues in genealogy research, particularly for brick walls. In genealogy, census records help place an ancestor in a time and place.
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Even early census records can help family historians find small clues that help with difficult genealogy research questions.
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CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction
02:57 Research Early US census records
04:13 Find Immigration Origins
06:49 Extracting Information from Ancestry
10:56 Revisit your results
14:12 Is your ancestor hiding
17:16 Townley Case Study
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Пікірлер: 39

  • @jenniferanderson3011
    @jenniferanderson30113 жыл бұрын

    From searching my family records I found several boarding houses, so unrelated people in the same household. I also found females as live-in domestic help and young unrelated men as extra farmhands. In my family's recent past children were sent to different relatives while their Mom was in the hospital for an extended stay.

  • @FamilyHistoryFanatics

    @FamilyHistoryFanatics

    3 жыл бұрын

    I have found many of these same clues. It's so frustrating when my family members become brickwalls at boarding houses.

  • @whychromosomesmusic5766
    @whychromosomesmusic57663 жыл бұрын

    Sorry didn't get to continue conversation. My ancestors are from Pertusio, Prascorsano, Canischio area of Provinicia di Torino (also from City of Torino), Piemonte. I am researching Atti di Nati, Matrimoni e Morti on Family Search: Italy and I love probates wondering if there are examples of Italian probates I can see online? Also for those interested Virginia Chancery Court records online at the Library of Virginia website are an excellent source of probate information and they are a work in progress. Gradually adding more and more counties' records to those available. I am a genealogist for the Chandler Family Association and have transcribed a number of those Virginia Chancery Court records and uncovered new information for them in the process. Enjoyed the chat and look forward to the next one. Take care and stay safe.

  • @FamilyHistoryFanatics

    @FamilyHistoryFanatics

    3 жыл бұрын

    Thanks for the opportunity to learn something new. According to this website www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Italy_Probate_Records, Italy doesn't have probate records. Instead, they have Declarations of succession (Dichiarazioni di Successione). Another term used is Notarial records. If you have more questions about Italian research, reach out to my friend Alessandro with Bella Italia Genealogy (www.bellaitaliagenealogy.com/site/). Whenever I have an Italian genealogy question, I ask him.

  • @whychromosomesmusic5766

    @whychromosomesmusic5766

    3 жыл бұрын

    @@FamilyHistoryFanatics Thanks I have bookmarked the website and will do that in the future. Grazie mille! Buona giornata!

  • @michaelwhalan9783
    @michaelwhalan97833 жыл бұрын

    Ancestry DNA just updated ethnicity results: my two Geisler cousin and I changed our Scotland percentages. I went up to 40 percent while they changed to 32 and 13 from around 25 percent.

  • @FamilyHistoryFanatics

    @FamilyHistoryFanatics

    3 жыл бұрын

    Is this good news or neutral news?

  • @michaelwhalan9783

    @michaelwhalan9783

    3 жыл бұрын

    @@FamilyHistoryFanatics well it increased my Swedish to 9 percent, so the Anderson side may be contributing to that number, too. It balances out because the Geisler cousins went up and down in their Scottish percentage.

  • @FamilyHistoryFanatics

    @FamilyHistoryFanatics

    3 жыл бұрын

    Gotcha. I haven't checked mine because I'm more interested in ThruLines than ethnicity. But I'll take a look once my once is set up again.

  • @scrapingrama1
    @scrapingrama13 жыл бұрын

    I have mostly Ontario families. The early census gave land plots etc and just head of family. After 1851 they showed religion, what nationality etc profession, 1901 census Showed birthdate and approx marriage years. Reading the transcribers writing was a challenge. My Dorland family was spelled Dirling, Darling,durland etc every ten years a different spelling.

  • @FamilyHistoryFanatics

    @FamilyHistoryFanatics

    3 жыл бұрын

    I have many Ontario ancestors as well. I loved when they included the land description. This was so helpful when I was working my way through the Comforts and Zumsteins near Gainsborough, Lincoln County.

  • @whychromosomesmusic5766

    @whychromosomesmusic5766

    3 жыл бұрын

    @@FamilyHistoryFanatics United Empire Loyalists Phillip Fuchs (changed to Fox) and Johann Wendel Weigele (changed to Wigle). I think there are tons of us who are descendants just from the Fox and Wigle lines of Essex County, Ontario, Canada and VERY strong in my autosomal matches as well. Are probates for Canada online anywhere? I've never seen that they were. I'd like to know more about Canadian records? Do they have them at the National Archives in UK?

  • @constanza1648
    @constanza16483 жыл бұрын

    Did I miss something? Why didn't you include Joanna on the list? 8:22 And why she and Eliza didn't appeard on the 1850 Census? If you forget Johanna and you think there is one extra female on the census, then... When I do the census table, I like to insert one line with the adress of the family. Sometimes it's useful to have the adress: if they didn't move, you can have another clue to corroborate the info.

  • @FamilyHistoryFanatics

    @FamilyHistoryFanatics

    3 жыл бұрын

    Constanza... yes. I did forget Johanna at one point. But then I caught her and found her again. I caught the error during editing but decided to leave it in as a teaching moment. You found it! Good job.

  • @cathyc6725
    @cathyc67253 жыл бұрын

    I knew my 4th great grandmother had to be in a certain location in 1830 based on land records. I had to go page by page to find her because she did not appear in any index. She was listed as Widow Torbut, rather than Susannah or Susan Talbott. The handwrting was terrible.

  • @FamilyHistoryFanatics

    @FamilyHistoryFanatics

    3 жыл бұрын

    GREAT Find! That's a new clue that I need to add to my help guides. Look for "Widow" instead of first names. And I agree many of the early census records are written with terrible handwriting.

  • @staceycoates1418
    @staceycoates14183 жыл бұрын

    I think my biggest block has been when my ancestor married between1840 and 1850 and either I don't know their parents' names or if I do I don't know who their siblings would have been to figure out what would have been the likely tick mark configuration.

  • @AdultThirdCultureKid1971

    @AdultThirdCultureKid1971

    3 жыл бұрын

    Same here. I was researching my ancestor, Ann Catherine Doyle, who possibly married Thomas Wright between 1844 and 1850, in Boston, Massachusetts and gave birth to at least four children between those years. That's my other biggest block.

  • @FamilyHistoryFanatics

    @FamilyHistoryFanatics

    3 жыл бұрын

    Stacey, I'm in the same boat as you for so many of my relatives. The 1840/1850 divide is frustrating to say the least.

  • @FamilyHistoryFanatics

    @FamilyHistoryFanatics

    3 жыл бұрын

    Tanya, that is a lot of life changing events between census. It makes us wonder how we ever make progress!

  • @whychromosomesmusic5766

    @whychromosomesmusic5766

    3 жыл бұрын

    @@FamilyHistoryFanatics Not sure if this is helpful but I found some Massachusetts probate records at family search that were very complete in listing some of the family and their relationships and their residences. Some were listed as living in places like New York City.

  • @deckocards6988
    @deckocards69883 жыл бұрын

    Hey Devon, the volume on your recording is low...I have it all the way up to 100 and I have to strain to hear what you are saying :-(

  • @debbeb4499

    @debbeb4499

    3 жыл бұрын

    I had my volume at 50% and it was loud enough. Another genealogy-related mystery! 😊

  • @deckocards6988

    @deckocards6988

    3 жыл бұрын

    @@debbeb4499 I'm just resigned to wearing my ear plugs, I guess. Those always keep the volume just right :-)

  • @FamilyHistoryFanatics

    @FamilyHistoryFanatics

    3 жыл бұрын

    Decko Cards... I will work to improve the volume the next time around. My "now old' studio had some crazy issues when I recorded this last batch. When I set up the new studio I'm going to be vary contentious about the sound. Thanks for trying.

  • @FamilyHistoryFanatics
    @FamilyHistoryFanatics3 жыл бұрын

    What clues do you get out of early census records?

  • @jum5238

    @jum5238

    3 жыл бұрын

    Proximity is one clue... as well as numbers, genders and ages of people, where (if you're lucky) may correlate to a family with ages 10 years older in 1850.

  • @FamilyHistoryFanatics

    @FamilyHistoryFanatics

    3 жыл бұрын

    I love these clues. I find family / neighbor clusters as extremely powerful.

  • @whychromosomesmusic5766

    @whychromosomesmusic5766

    3 жыл бұрын

    @@FamilyHistoryFanatics Depends if they are alphabetical or order of enumeration. All kinds of clues for both -- handwriting of the time, county officers or other officials' names, administrative information (county? district? or otherwise) and check township, county formation for clues to earlier and/or later records; changes from year to year may show vital info (birth, deaths) or possible migration from or to elsewhere; compare with tax records and other records; military in reference to veterans just for some I can think of.

  • @AdultThirdCultureKid1971
    @AdultThirdCultureKid19713 жыл бұрын

    For me, it's the handwriting in the early censuses.

  • @phyllisporter8393

    @phyllisporter8393

    3 жыл бұрын

    Look up and down the page for similar names/letters to compare. Get list of examples of handwriting. Many letters were made differently then --- example double SS was made like a "P". Capital letters S and L were made like the other one. I have an ancestor whose last name started with S, but it looked like a G -- it was indexed incorrectly.

  • @FamilyHistoryFanatics

    @FamilyHistoryFanatics

    3 жыл бұрын

    Agreed. The handwriting is super challenging.

  • @whychromosomesmusic5766

    @whychromosomesmusic5766

    3 жыл бұрын

    @@FamilyHistoryFanatics In my notebook I print the alphabet lower and upper case and numbers and any other significant characters. Then I try to imitate how the enumerator made those letters, numbers, etc. next to each letter, number, character, etc. and keep that handy as I'm going through all of the pages. This has helped me a great deal especially if the writing is difficult to read or faded, etc. I do the same thing for probates and other older documents. I also try to find later printed records or published records like county histories, etc. to see what were the common surnames, given names, names of locations, etc. in a particular area.

  • @BrandonSmith84
    @BrandonSmith843 жыл бұрын

    Would the census taker might mistakenly marked down one of the sons as a female? My 5th Great Grandfather and his family Samuel Rouse Jr. (1782-1862) Martha (1786-1868) Thomas (1810-1870) William (1810-1882) My 4GG Joel (1815-1891) Abraham (1816-1870) John (1820-1883) James (1825-1870) They had 2 older children Nathaniel (1805-1850) Elizabeth (1808-1880) Thomas and William were born 9 months apart Thomas and Abraham died between 1870 and 1880 James died between 1860 and 1870 1830 Boone County, Kentucky Census Head Of Household: Samuel Rouse Jr. 2 Males 5 To 10: John and James 1 Male 10 To 15: Joel 2 Males 15 To 20: Thomas and William 1 Male 40 To 50: Samuel Jr. 1 Female 10 To 15: Unknown Daughter 1 Female 40 To 50: Martha

  • @phyllisporter8393

    @phyllisporter8393

    3 жыл бұрын

    Yes, children could be listed incorrectly as female or male. Example: If the census taker saw a child with curly hair named Francis/Frances, he could easily think child was female instead of male.

  • @FamilyHistoryFanatics

    @FamilyHistoryFanatics

    3 жыл бұрын

    The census taker is human and such errors are entirely possible. Thanks for sharing your information. I think it helps us all learn more.

  • @whychromosomesmusic5766

    @whychromosomesmusic5766

    3 жыл бұрын

    @@FamilyHistoryFanatics I sometimes wonder if in earlier times when little boys wore what would be considered dresses today and also had their hair longer sometimes with ribbons, etc. that enumerators might mistake them for girls. Or maybe the family told them they were for some unknown reason? ;-)

  • @lisataylor5305
    @lisataylor53053 жыл бұрын

    How to read the darn things

  • @FamilyHistoryFanatics

    @FamilyHistoryFanatics

    3 жыл бұрын

    Yep. They can be challenging.