Why Can't I Find Them in the Census? by Juliana Smith March 5, 2007
We all have them. In fact, we probably have more than one. I'm talking about those families or individuals that we just cannot locate in the census. My Kelly family is one of them. Although I go back periodically and check for them, I just can't seem to find them in 1860 and 1870, despite having other records that indicate that they were in New York City for at least a few years in the interim.
Every once in a while I have another crack at locating them, and this week was one of those times. As I reviewed what I had and the challenge ahead, I had to ask myself some questions to see if I had missed anything.
Have You Checked for Misspellings and Mistranscriptions?
"Thank you, Captain Obvious!" I think misspellings and mis- transcriptions are probably the first things we suspect when we run into a situation where an ancestor is not where we think they should be. But what have we done to address this situation? Misspelled or mis-transcribed--they're still lurking out there. Here are some tricks:
Are You Working with Reliable Information?
Sometimes we spend years working with bad information. For example, for years we thought that Dwyer was the correct maiden name for my third-great-grandmother. It was recorded as such on one of her children's baptism records. It wasn't until we were able to locate her original marriage record that we found it was actually Weir.
Ages, birthplaces, and other information can be suspect as well. Was your ancestor from Liverpool, or was it just that he sailed from there? Was he born in Canada, or did he just reside there for a time before moving on to the U.S.? Double check your sources and see what items you can corroborate with other records. Try leaving information that is suspect out of your search criteria.
Have You Placed Them Definitively in the Area You Are Searching?
You'll also want to look at your reasoning for placing them in the area. Create timelines with the records you have found to try to place them at the time of the census you are searching. (Step-by-step instructions for creating a timeline can be found in the Ancestry Library)
Look at boundary changes. Were state or county lines redrawn around that time? Your ancestor may not have moved, but his address may have changed.
Are You Assuming Your Ancestors Made a Straight Line Migration?
We often think of our ancestors reaching a destination in an orderly way. They left the old country, landed in one location and perhaps stayed for a time, before moving on to their final destination. Consider that many immigrants made several trips. My great- grandfather reportedly went back to Poland several times before finally settling in the U.S.
Another great-grandfather was found in both the 1910 and 1920 censuses in Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Yet his 1918 WWI draft registration lists his residence in Barton, Belmont County, Ohio. I had heard my grandfather talk about how he had worked in the mines in southern Ohio for one day, but since the family had been enumerated in northern Ohio since he was around age four, I could never figure out how that could be, but knowing now that they moved back and forth, it makes more sense.
Have You Tried a Manual Search?
Try mapping your ancestors' addresses around census years with enumeration district descriptions. Later censuses on Ancestry can often be browsed to the district level to see the descriptions, particularly in larger cities. Rural areas may not have this feature, but by contrast, rural townships will typically have fewer pages to go through anyway.
Have You Taken Into Accounty Any Special Circumstances?
I was unable to locate James Kelly and his family so I focused on a daughter for whom I had a death record. (Searching for other family members is also a helpful strategy.) A cemetery record told me the daughter had died in 1867 at age thirty, but as I searched using that age, I wanted to double-check it with her death record. I pulled it out and was reminded that she had died of "consumption," or tuberculosis. She wasn't alone. I know of an aunt and uncle of hers that had also succumbed to that disease. Here's where a light bulb went on. I had found a record of her uncle dying in Florida and had speculated that he went there for health reasons. This connection made me wonder whether she had left New York for a time as well, possibly accounting for her absence.
Might there be a similar factor in your family history that you should consider? An epidemic, fire, flood, or some other plight during a census year might have caused your ancestor to move for a short time. Perhaps a poor harvest or some other economic factor may have caused your ancestor to relocate for a short time as well. Check local histories and read newspapers to find clues to events that would have precipitated a move.
Keep an open mind and consider all the options when you have an ancestor in hiding. With a little perseverance, even the most elusive of ancestors can often be found.
Juliana Smith has been the editor of Ancestry.com newsletters for more than eight years and is author of The Ancestry Family Historian's Address Book. She has written for Ancestry Magazine and wrote the Computers and Technology chapter in The Source: A Guidebook to American Genealogy, rev. 3rd edition. Juliana can be reached by e-mail at [email protected], but she regrets that her schedule does not allow her to assist with personal research.
We all have them. In fact, we probably have more than one. I'm talking about those families or individuals that we just cannot locate in the census. My Kelly family is one of them. Although I go back periodically and check for them, I just can't seem to find them in 1860 and 1870, despite having other records that indicate that they were in New York City for at least a few years in the interim.
Every once in a while I have another crack at locating them, and this week was one of those times. As I reviewed what I had and the challenge ahead, I had to ask myself some questions to see if I had missed anything.
Have You Checked for Misspellings and Mistranscriptions?
"Thank you, Captain Obvious!" I think misspellings and mis- transcriptions are probably the first things we suspect when we run into a situation where an ancestor is not where we think they should be. But what have we done to address this situation? Misspelled or mis-transcribed--they're still lurking out there. Here are some tricks:
- Check for initials. In some years and locations, you may find districts where nearly everyone is listed only by initial. Also look for name variants, foreign translations of given names, nicknames, aliases, etc.
- Try a given name only or even a no-name search. Use the location in which you think they resided, date of birth, place of birth, and other criteria available to narrow your search.
- Experiment with different search functions, like Soundex and wildcards. When using Soundex, figure out the codes for variations of the surnames you are searching. (RootsWeb has a converter available http://resources.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/soundexconverter.) This way you'll know which variations are covered with each search. Ancestry allows the use of an asterisk "*" to represent zero to six characters and a question mark "?" to represent one character (although you must include the first three letters of the name). For more on wildcards, see the FAQ in the Ancestry Help Center.
- For mis-transcriptions, you may want to look for similar looking letters. Commonly mis-transcribed uppercase letters include L and S; T and F; J, G, and Y; I and J; K and R; O and Q; P and R; U and W. (From The Source: A Guidebook to American Genealogy, ed. Loretto D. Szucs and Sandra H. Luebking)
- Say the name aloud and look for similar sounding names. My Weir ancestors have been listed as Toire, Dwyer, Wire, and Ware, and my great-grandfather Mekalski's name was given an Irish twist when it was indexed as McKalski.
- Keep track of difficult searches. When you're randomly entering in fields, it's easy to miss a combination. I like to use a spreadsheet to keep track of my searches. (See the blog for an example)
Are You Working with Reliable Information?
Sometimes we spend years working with bad information. For example, for years we thought that Dwyer was the correct maiden name for my third-great-grandmother. It was recorded as such on one of her children's baptism records. It wasn't until we were able to locate her original marriage record that we found it was actually Weir.
Ages, birthplaces, and other information can be suspect as well. Was your ancestor from Liverpool, or was it just that he sailed from there? Was he born in Canada, or did he just reside there for a time before moving on to the U.S.? Double check your sources and see what items you can corroborate with other records. Try leaving information that is suspect out of your search criteria.
Have You Placed Them Definitively in the Area You Are Searching?
You'll also want to look at your reasoning for placing them in the area. Create timelines with the records you have found to try to place them at the time of the census you are searching. (Step-by-step instructions for creating a timeline can be found in the Ancestry Library)
Look at boundary changes. Were state or county lines redrawn around that time? Your ancestor may not have moved, but his address may have changed.
Are You Assuming Your Ancestors Made a Straight Line Migration?
We often think of our ancestors reaching a destination in an orderly way. They left the old country, landed in one location and perhaps stayed for a time, before moving on to their final destination. Consider that many immigrants made several trips. My great- grandfather reportedly went back to Poland several times before finally settling in the U.S.
Another great-grandfather was found in both the 1910 and 1920 censuses in Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Yet his 1918 WWI draft registration lists his residence in Barton, Belmont County, Ohio. I had heard my grandfather talk about how he had worked in the mines in southern Ohio for one day, but since the family had been enumerated in northern Ohio since he was around age four, I could never figure out how that could be, but knowing now that they moved back and forth, it makes more sense.
Have You Tried a Manual Search?
Try mapping your ancestors' addresses around census years with enumeration district descriptions. Later censuses on Ancestry can often be browsed to the district level to see the descriptions, particularly in larger cities. Rural areas may not have this feature, but by contrast, rural townships will typically have fewer pages to go through anyway.
Have You Taken Into Accounty Any Special Circumstances?
I was unable to locate James Kelly and his family so I focused on a daughter for whom I had a death record. (Searching for other family members is also a helpful strategy.) A cemetery record told me the daughter had died in 1867 at age thirty, but as I searched using that age, I wanted to double-check it with her death record. I pulled it out and was reminded that she had died of "consumption," or tuberculosis. She wasn't alone. I know of an aunt and uncle of hers that had also succumbed to that disease. Here's where a light bulb went on. I had found a record of her uncle dying in Florida and had speculated that he went there for health reasons. This connection made me wonder whether she had left New York for a time as well, possibly accounting for her absence.
Might there be a similar factor in your family history that you should consider? An epidemic, fire, flood, or some other plight during a census year might have caused your ancestor to move for a short time. Perhaps a poor harvest or some other economic factor may have caused your ancestor to relocate for a short time as well. Check local histories and read newspapers to find clues to events that would have precipitated a move.
Keep an open mind and consider all the options when you have an ancestor in hiding. With a little perseverance, even the most elusive of ancestors can often be found.
Juliana Smith has been the editor of Ancestry.com newsletters for more than eight years and is author of The Ancestry Family Historian's Address Book. She has written for Ancestry Magazine and wrote the Computers and Technology chapter in The Source: A Guidebook to American Genealogy, rev. 3rd edition. Juliana can be reached by e-mail at [email protected], but she regrets that her schedule does not allow her to assist with personal research.