My collateral ancestor Mintie was called by her middle name Lucinda in almost every record during her lifetime *except* the bible record above and one census: Nicknames, middle names and initials will get you every time in genealogical research. They still get me every now and then and it kinda drives me just a little […]
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Category: Census Records
She Might Not Be a Widow
Before I get into this post, I want to let you know how excited I am about the next webinar I’ll be presenting on Saturday, June 26, 2021 at 1:00 pm EST. Aaron Dorsey and I will be presenting on Finding the Last Slaveowner: Guidance and Case Studies, and this will be a 2-hour extended […]
Understanding the Slave Community
Before my post, I want to acknowledge the passing of my dear and treasured friend, Andrea Ramsey on October 8, 2019. Its been a very sad summer for me, with her illness. She was an outstanding genealogist, specializing in Caribbean research, and a proud member of the Jean Sampson Scott AAHGS chapter in New York […]
Census Tricks: Not Lodgers or Boarders b...
We all know how problematic the census is as a source. Nevertheless, it’s often the foundation of much of our research, so census records are a favorite subject of mine. Here’s another common error we see: a census household includes lodgers or boarders. Later, we discover they are actually family members. Why didn’t the enumerator […]
About That Mulatto…
We cannot assume that anyone marked “mulatto” in a census record had one white parent and one black parent. I have previously discussed that genealogists should know some of the instructions provided to enumerators, and that the changing definitions of race, since it is a social and not a biological construct, should tell us something. […]
Do You Use A Census Tracker?
One of the first things I do with every family line is to (try to) locate them in every census during their lifetime. As most researchers know, depending upon the time and place, this is much easier said than done. I “track” the families using census trackers created with Microsoft Word. They are easy to […]
The Community Reveals the Family
The power of researching our ancestors in the communities where they lived cannot be overstated. Above is a portion of a census table I created showing dwelling and family number, name, age and a few other notations. John and Abigail Waters John and Abigail Waters lived with their immediate African-American neighbors in the community of […]
A Rare Census Find
Census records form much of the foundation of our research. I have written many posts trying to emphasize that we have to go back and read the census. Its critical we learn about the communities where our ancestors lived. We have to know the typical pitfalls of census research. We have to learn how to […]
Fooled Again: The Green Barnes Family
The family of my ancestor Green Barnes recently proved to me again that we all need to be diligent when trying to reconstruct our families. It also illustrates how original sources, assumptions and human nature sometimes conspire to confuse us. This recent odyssey started when I was reviewing the obituary for a collateral ancestor, Cora […]
When Original Sources Are Wrong
Frank Gowen married Matilda Davis on 17 August 1916 in Duval County, Florida. Seems pretty straightforward, right? This is an original source, after all. Except it isn’t accurate. Matilda married Frank GARVIN. And a seemingly small detail like that can throw your research off into all kinds of wrong directions. The Beginning of Trouble When […]