#1 Way to Break Down Brick Walls: Updated (2020)

What is the number one way to break down those brick walls and get unstuck in your family history research? I’ve got a trick to help you with that and make the job faster in the long run. In this episode I’ll show you how to extract census information, so you can filter it to your ancestors fast.
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0:00 Intro
5:37 Research Question
6:45 Researching the 1860 Census
7:05 Extracting data from 1860 Census
7:20 Open Census Transcriptions
8:03 Highlight All on Census
8:27 Copy Command
8:39 Paste Special as Text
9:13 How to insert a column in Excel
9:41 How to Delete Rows in Excel
10:25 How to copy one cell to many
11:33 How to move a cell
12:20 How to resize columns in Excel
12:57 Resize multiple columns
13:23 Bold an entire row
13:35 Freeze Panes - Top Row
15:45 Full Example
16:06 Inserting Rows
16:22 Add Source Citation Info
17:45 Freeze Many Rows with Split
18:58 Creating Filters
19:47 Filter by Surname
21:10 Filter by Gender
21:32 Date Error in Extraction
22:15 Highlight cell with color
23:20 Process of Elimination
24:17 Why Image Numbers
25:14 Davis Men in Bastardy Bonds
26:40 Un-filter columns
27:40 Recap
28:38 Closing information
Episode 173
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[@Justshill]

Day before yesterday I was able to break through a more than one-hundred year old mystery. I used the Ancestry Thru-lines following my paternal line with the last name and state for my GG last name Jones (of course!). I then reviewed my matches and began to wild card attached their trees to my own and kablam! I know know who my GGG is and found the family in Panola County, MS. I am able to see faces of people who have been phantoms to me. I'm trying to fit some other pieces together so it's still a work in progress.

[@GenealogyTV]

Congratulations!

[@spyrothedragon9137]

I cannot thank you enough..I found the parents of my 4x great grandma! After so many years! Thanks a million!!!

[@GenealogyTV]

Wonderful!

[@susancelotto122]

This is wonderful!! I started doing this with my moms family in the boot heel of MO starting with the 1900 census and working backwards first and eventually forward. However, I kept seeing so many surnames I recognized, I stopped and am now doing the entire county for all of the censuses. This is saving SO much time!! In the end it will benefit me AND tons of other people!!

[@GenealogyTV]

Awesome!

[@danyellewheelock2329]

When filtering, you can also just type the name in the search as opposed to scrolling to find. This is awesome. Great idea can’t wait to utilize this on my research.

[@Annette-ArtingIsAVerb]

This copy and pasting doesn't work in Firefox browser (everything converts to one column), but it works exactly as you describe in Chrome. This is AMAZING, Connie. I'm not a slouch when it comes to Excel, but you taught me a couple new tricks. The whole FAN searching has new life. Thank you! Thank you!

[@GenealogyTV]

You’re welcome. 👏👏👏👏

[@gregsim2]

Thanks Annette. I thought it was my MacBook OS that didn't work. I was thinking I had to use Windows OS (and I don't like Windows). With my MacBook, I was using Firefox and as you have observed, Firefox was the problem. I was able to do Connie's trick using Chrome. Thank You! Thank You! Now, I can work on my MacBook where I am more comfortable.

[@GenealogyTV]

Thank you both for the info. I’m not a Mac user. Mac’s are a completely different language to me. Good to know.

[@gregsim2]

@@GenealogyTV I was going to ask you but I found Annette's comments first. Ha Ha! I saved another dead end. I know that neither Apple nor Microsoft was going to help me. The Internet is where the useful support is. Thanks to you especially Connie - this was a particularly useful video. 6 Stars!

[@Nomechick]

Annette, this used to work in Firefox but I don't know at which update it stopped working. I also use Libre & thought it was Libre that wasn't working. After several frustrating attempts, I went on to other genealogy probs. But I often review Connie's videos, and this time, I read ALL the comments. That's now my MO when I watch genealogy vids bc the community is so so helpful. I've installed Chrome, it works & I'm going to hop back-and-forth between Chrome & Firefox since all of my bookmarks are in Firefox. Connie (Genealogy TV) - thanks for the update. I review your vids often bc each time I pick up or understand more or am at the stage in my genealogy that you're addressing. Thanks to you and the community at large!

[@stephenpeterson7479]

This is one of the most helpful genealogy videos I've seen. Thank you.

[@GenealogyTV]

Glad it was helpful!

[@jacquievickerspioneerresea2730]

Absolutely awesome information!!! I love how you show us to do filters on Excel because I did that before at work, but not in the past 5 years and it's so easy the way you explained it. Thank you so much. Now I'm going to do this spreadsheet for all my peeps! I'll be done about 2095! lol But seriously, thanks for being so clear in your explanations of things we might not use everyday or forgotten how to do!

[@GenealogyTV]

You are so welcome.

[@junepeasgood1907]

Never thought to do this for Census records to find "related" persons in this way. Thank you for the insight, will help much with my research. Every day is a new day to learn :-)

[@GenealogyTV]

So true. Thanks.

[@joanneroth1596]

This was just Fantastic! I immediately went to my computer and downloaded several censuses into excel. I love your videos.

[@GenealogyTV]

Thank you Joanne.

[@minikitz5642]

Thanks for yet another informative video! I remember back when I saw the original one that it was such a light-bulb illuminating moment for me. I learned a lot of new tips and tricks from that one and now there's even more with this video. The handout is fantastic with it's step-by-step detailed info. Thanks, Debbie Jones

[@GenealogyTV]

Fabulous. Thanks for the kind words and for supporting my work.

[@Airys01]

Amazing! Thank you for explaining this in detail. I will be trying this out today!

[@GenealogyTV]

Glad it was helpful!

[@bv2858]

Connie, I know next to nothing about Excel but thanks to you there is hope. You make even someone like me catch on. I have lost track how many times I watch this but feel confident it will start coming natural. I love this and all your videos. You are such a great teacher. Thank you for all you do.

[@GenealogyTV]

The only way to learn, is the dive in. My biggest advice is to save early and save often

[@sharespotsy]

Wow! I’ve been self taught and you’ve pushed me to go farther! Thank you!

[@GenealogyTV]

Excellent

[@laurelclark8309]

Agreed, I learned so much from this video, thank you! I followed along and did this with you. FYI- someone may have already discussed this but I did want to mention that in the 1870 Census for an infant the census taker put 4/12 for 4 months old in July. It downloaded as born in April but there is also a column that asked for month born that has February listed. Just might want to check to correct the month. Thanks again!

[@healthyliving2091]

Tip If you want your page to look a little neater, more compact reduce the long name, for example, Dwelling Number can be changed to Dwelling # or Dwell #, Family Number to Fam #. Reduce anything that is larger than the information below it will have a much more narrow row for a single-digit answer below. For longer titles at the top, you can add a row below the description so you could put half of the description on the top line and the rest below which will reduce the column to a much thinner column.

[@GenealogyTV]

Yes agreed. On longer titles I use word wrap in the same cell.

[@zoinks7771]

Thank you, Connie. This is very helpful.

[@darlenesye1609]

MOST AWESOME! I'm still watching. All of your videos are great, even for an intermediate refresher but I think this is the best one yet.

[@GenealogyTV]

Glad you like them! I agree... this is one of my best tricks.

[@suevarble4401]

Thank you. I will go back and look at all of my brick walls this way

[@debandrew2802]

Great video, so informative. Always great stuff on your channel. Let’s go break down some brick walls!

[@GenealogyTV]

Deal!

[@WarrenDuffie]

Thanks for this great video. I learned so much about Excel.

[@GenealogyTV]

Super. Glad it helped. Thanks for supporting GTV.

[@GenealogyTV]

Thanks for supporting GTV.

[@junebutka6571]

I used your Trifecta Strategy and found my great grandmother's obit. I also found out she was a Seven Day Advent in Auburn, Maine.

[@GenealogyTV]

Yay. See it works!

[@RogersMgmtGroup]

A Seventh-day Adventist

[@cyndra680]

Super helpful! Thank you!

[@shirlsmail2]

So helpful. Can’t wait to try these tips when on my computer. Thankyou

[@GenealogyTV]

My pleasure.

[@carolholz1125]

Self taught Excel & use Excel regularly in my family history research, however you have given me another avenue to use spreadsheets in solving some of my brick walls. I'm looking forward to using this trick. I have been doing my research for 31 years but new to this site due to COVID isolation & because our Family History Centre is still closed which I am a Volunteer of. Thank you Constance for waking up my zest for researching my family history again. Cheers from Down under.

[@berwickeveningview2537]

Hi Carol, from Berwick Victoria!

[@GenealogyTV]

Yay

[@Kris19501]

That was so helpful. I'm not very good with Excel and you have given such wonderful step by step on how to use it to help break down brick walls. I will definitely watch this video more than once! Thanks so much.

[@GenealogyTV]

Thanks Kris

[@lonestarladytyler1980]

So interesting! Thank you.

[@GenealogyTV]

I appreciate it.

[@LindaBeutel]

Such an excellent explanation!!! Thank you so much

[@GenealogyTV]

Thanks Linda

[@caseyzahn3226]

Great update, Connie! I used the original video to sort my Browns in eastern CT...yes, my mind was a "Brown out." This makes it so much easier. Thank you for teaching us!

[@GenealogyTV]

Thank you for the nice comment.

[@caseyzahn3226]

@@GenealogyTV you are very welcome, 😊

[@GeminiDayDreams]

There are rare occasions that Ancestry has not indexed people on the census page. I've seen it for people in my tree at least twice maybe more. So It would probably be useful to check to see if at least the heads of households are indexed on each page before entering the information into a spreadsheet. Or at the very least keep in mind that while Ancestry is amazing it's not perfect, so you might have to be extra vigilant at times.

[@sharontabor7718]

Which is why FamilySearch census can be a backup - their indexing picks up things missed by Ancestry.

[@nicoledavis-brock987]

Extremely helpful! Thank you so much.

[@GenealogyTV]

You're very welcome!

[@knockshinnoch1950]

This is such a great video- informative and clear instruction on using the data. The methodical analysis of the data and perseverance that yields such satisfying results- love it! Thank you.

[@GenealogyTV]

You're very welcome! Thanks again!

[@tangojuli209]

Wow, I just found this video and your channel, been up late for 3 nites trying to get over a dead end, and BINGO, I used this and figured it out! Never thought to download the census data either--DUH!! Joined your patreon. Thanks!

[@GenealogyTV]

Fantastic! Woo-Hoo! Happy Dance!

[@GenealogyTV]

Thanks for joining me on Patreon. I really appreciate it!!!

[@joycemix4302]

This is an awesome trick. I actually found my 2nd gr grandmother and another uncle I had been trying to find for years. Thank you so much.

[@GenealogyTV]

Fantastic! Yes... this is one of my better tricks.

[@lindashine5575]

Thank you! This is so helpful! I was just getting frustrated trying to do something similar but just not getting there. I find that I spend way too much time in Excel trying to make it look pretty and organized instead of trying to answer my question. This will help so much.

[@GenealogyTV]

Fabulous

[@nkbbrigger3359]

Thank you Connie. Great Info

[@GenealogyTV]

Glad it was helpful!

[@willcarter8269]

I really like your site and appreciate all the information you share. I don’t know if you covered this before. When I tried to download the census information to my excel, I had no luck at all. I followed your instructions exactly. Still no joy. I then noticed you did not mention the browser you were using. I was using Firefox. So, I switched to a different browser and everything worked. Thanks again for all you do.

[@GenealogyTV]

Good to know. I use Chrome 99% of the time and didn't think to try another browser.

[@Sal.K--BC]

Wow! Awesome tutorial... I can't wait to put it into practice....

[@GenealogyTV]

Thank you. It’s one of my favorite inventions. 😀

[@tomzito2585]

This is a very helpful idea and came at just the right time as I am searching a neighborhood for siblings and cousins who immigrated together but their names were all mangled with different spelling variations. Excel's filtering features are a much more robust searching tool than trying to wrestle with the search tool on the websites. Thank you Connie!

[@GenealogyTV]

Yep... This is one of my very favorite tricks.

[@cherio01]

Wow, recently stumbled on to your page. Great teacher, well done. Thank you

[@GenealogyTV]

Thank you Cheri.

[@kathywilson2069]

Thank you for another great and useful video.

[@GenealogyTV]

Thanks Kathy

[@barbarah5756]

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! Great and easy explanation. I figured out how to make it work with Google spreadsheets quite rapidly. Love your channel!😍

[@GenealogyTV]

Thanks Barbara!

[@sararevesz8926]

Thanks so much Connie. Perhaps this will work as many other attempts have not.

[@GenealogyTV]

I hope so, for your sake.

[@maryjogoolsby3800]

This is brilliant! Thanks so much for sharing this so that the process can be followed. Beats the daylights out of scooting back and forth among images hoping to see a relevant detail.

[@GenealogyTV]

Thanks. I appreciate it.

[@51Leenie]

This is so cool! Never knew we could do that with Ancestry images!

[@GenealogyTV]

Yeah... it's a little trick I invented. I do this with a lot of data.

[@maryksoller2245]

This was a game changer! Thank you!

[@GenealogyTV]

My pleasure.

[@paulaseiple336]

Thanks. This was really helpful.

[@GenealogyTV]

You're welcome!

[@JennyLaBouff]

Very helpful. Thank you.

[@GenealogyTV]

Glad it was helpful!

[@lindawoody8501]

Nifty trick. Great tutorial. Thanks!

[@GenealogyTV]

Glad it was helpful!

[@grainesutube]

This is an awesome technique! Thanks.

[@GenealogyTV]

Thank you Gary. And thank you for supporting the channel.

[@cherylboyer1737]

Outstanding - thanks for the great tutorial

[@GenealogyTV]

My pleasure!

[@samjb6471]

Thank you! Excel also lets you filter and/or sort by the shading color and/or the font color you use. Hope this gives you more options when you're looking at the data.

[@GenealogyTV]

ooh good to know. I did not know that. thanks

[@SandyBuonoCarta]

Brilliant on so many levels. I can't thank you enough!

[@GenealogyTV]

You're very welcome!

[@pattyduke3079]

Thanks for the video. I tried copying the census record for filtering and could not figure it out, until your video. It was a great help. BTW, I just found your channel (Subcribed!) I was searching how to analyze census records.🤣

[@GenealogyTV]

Oh fantastic. Stick around... there's more videos every week. Thanks for the sub.

[@amanibey1391]

You are amazing! I just found you and subscribed. Looking forward to learning from you

[@GenealogyTV]

Awesome! Thank you!

[@ecstokes1]

The second button on your first paste click is paste text. You can also use Delimiting if formatting is uniform.

[@stevekearley698]

Thanks for sharing these steps and showing how this can be done. Just wish that Ancestry or Family Search would make such index searching possible in their databases without having to go through all the extraction techniques. But absent that, it is always great to find ways to work around that limitation!

[@GenealogyTV]

Thanks Steve. Sometimes I think when we do the work ourselves, we look closer at the data.

[@kathybeee1055]

Brilliant! Funnily my husband has always spruiked how great Excel is (He is a database engineer/software developer). He has asked me numerous times if I want to learn to "Program" in Excel, and I always answer "NO, not your nerd stuff". It is amazing that I am now very keen to follow your instructions for my family tree. I can't wait to show my husband. :)

[@GenealogyTV]

That is awesome! Love it... and so will he.

[@DonnieReno]

Nice! I knew about looking at neighbors on census records but saving records on Excel (etc.) is great to know. Also nice to know about are the bastardy bonds.

[@GenealogyTV]

Thanks. I use this trick all the time. 😀

[@MsCassie272]

Excellent information.

[@GenealogyTV]

Thanks

[@hemichallenger3643]

Neat. I'll have to keep that in mind. I had done similar things with just pen and paper. I need to stop being old, I guess. I'm kind of hoping some of your videos will answer my longest running questions. Good tips so far, so I have a few hundred videos to go.

[@GenealogyTV]

Thanks

[@dbridge276]

Great info, I will have to have a play with this technique. Once all the data is collated I would create a pivot table to see the most common names/data.

[@GenealogyTV]

Great idea. Keep me posted.

[@tania_summer_5032]

Thanks! Super helpful

[@GenealogyTV]

Glad it helped!

[@mamemu3130]

Oh wow, a tedious process, but it helped me out so much! I wish this feature was built into the census image on Ancestry. I provided feedback to the site years ago requesting they add an option to search for a person of interest inside the images and to add a feature that will redirect us to another person in a different household/dwelling in the image by clicking on their name.

[@dbridge276]

Last tip. On the left hand side on the top excel green strip of menu is a quick links area. I would create a button to allow me to click just once to bring of the paste special box, and if possible the text radio button selected. I am posting via iPad, and pc is shut down so I’ll have to try another day to create this to reduce the number of mouse clicks needed.

[@GenealogyTV]

Another great idea. I learn something new every day.

[@kels7200]

What a fantastic way to do this. Since most of my ancestors are in somewhat rural areas, at least until the 20th century, I'll likely bite the bullet and do the entire ED (and maybe even some surrounding ones) and not just a few pages on either side. I figure they were likely to have at least some contact with folks living a little further away through church and other activities. Since I'll still be able to see how close they are page number-wise, having a larger group might just save me some time later when I need to look for another ancestor or a collateral family. This will be a great way to kill some hours and will certainly pay off in spades down the road. Thanks for the tip!

[@GenealogyTV]

Super idea.

[@GenealogyTV]

Thanks for your support as a channel member!

[@tmpatklk]

Thanks for sharing this technique. It's a very logical strategy. It does work with Google Sheets. One must use Paste Special and select "Values only." The spacing worked well.

[@GenealogyTV]

Thanks

[@carolbianchi7852]

Another awesome video! I’ve watched this a couple times now, and I regularly make these lists (I do the whole census sometimes, to help find families that I can’t find a census for. It’s usually a spelling issue.). But what popped out at me today was the bastardy bonds. Maybe you can do a short video on when you are prompted to look for those, and where we would find them. Thanks again. I always come away with a new or refreshed angle on my searches. 🤓

[@GenealogyTV]

Hi Carol. I've thought about doing a video on Bastardy Bonds, but they are such an obscure record and really doesn't apply to everyone. They are a holdover from English law. I look at them when there is a missing parent or there is a missing marriage record. They are not available everywhere, but are usually in court records at the county level when found. Go to FamilySearch.org/wiki... and search for Bastardy Bonds in the area you're researching to see if the records exist.

[@carolbianchi7852]

@@GenealogyTV Thank you. That’s interesting. I will try that idea soon. 😊

[@annw1395]

My family is all recently from UK, and I need to know how to look for the father of a gggrandfather.

[@TheBritishDJ]

This worked for me with an ancestor far back, thank you!

[@GenealogyTV]

Glad it helped!

[@eileenfair6567]

Very helpful 🙂

[@GenealogyTV]

Thank you

[@jbradley1952]

Thanks, you have been helpfull

[@GenealogyTV]

Glad to hear that!

[@PeterGMerchant]

Made the first mistake in the book, started at page 7 and tried to insert previous pages before it in the spreadheet. Bah. I am using LibreOffice and it works nearly the same, but I discovered that if you are on a page, and click into the bottom section, and then right click and draw from the top left box down to the bottom right to select those cells, then CTRL-C and do the paste special into the spreadsheet, you don't get all the bumph at the top. And next trick, on Ancestry move to the next page and the table at the bottom is already highlighted so just CTRL-C anywhere on the page to copy and then use the paste special into the spreadsheet. Much faster. But thank you for this trick. PS just discovered that there is more than one 'book' for Llanelli and I did the wrong one first.

[@GenealogyTV]

Excellent. Thanks.

[@teresasmith4829]

Thank you so much for this!! I had been trying to think through how I could import census information into a spreadsheet; this is much easier than what I was contemplating thanks to some of your tricks. Also, I used to teach Excel but I even learned some new tricks about Excel! You said you had gotten the surname of Davis through DNA. Could you explain a little further on how you got the surnames and how you narrowed down to that one. Thanks for your help!

[@GenealogyTV]

Glad it was helpful! I asked my 1st cousin to take a YDNA test. All four matches had the surname of Davis. Then I cross referenced the surname Davis on Ancestry to find other cousins who matched with me and him. So I knew that Davis (on that line) was what I was looking for. Then after much descendant research, the closest DNA was specific to one family of four brothers... then more research, those four narrowed to one... Joel Davis Jr... his descendants had higher DNA than any other cluster of descendants from that line. I hope that makes sense.

[@nanasewdear]

Terrific ideas! I don't have Excel but I can't wait to try the basic principle for a mystery ggg grandfather who's parents remain elusive.

[@GenealogyTV]

I think you can do it in Google Sheets as well, and it is free.

[@desertpatient]

Thanks bunches

[@sstoner]

I have not looked thru all the comments, but you could do a "freeze" on a range to rows as opposed to doing the split. For freeze, the options are, 1 top row, 1 left column or "selection". So if you selected the first few lines they can be frozen, or likewise a few columns such as A-D if the labels are on the left.

[@GenealogyTV]

Thank you for the tip.

[@elijahcanada6697]

I’m not sure this can help with my accumulating brick walls , but both sides of my family are from rural county in Virginia , I can imagine I’ll come some rabbit holes if I’m just browsing. Great idea . I’m going to start with maybe 3 pages on either side and see what I can garner. Thanks for the great tip.

[@GenealogyTV]

I recommend at least five pages either side. You could start with three and go back later and add to the file.

[@douglasvilledarling2935]

My dad's side is from Virginia connected to some influential names. I never liked the story Alice in Wonderland as a child but I run down so many rabbit holes I have become her in my older age. Frustrating and fun at the same time.

[@pattyh2410]

Oh my goodness! I didn't know about saving the census data to Excel. I did a number on my eyes reviewing page after page of census images. Never again! Thanks!!!!

[@GenealogyTV]

Glad it was helpful!

[@terrgall]

Just WOW!

[@GenealogyTV]

Just Thank You! :)

[@lucieann21]

Absolutely brilliant! I’ve identified a family tree (NPE) I belong to but can to figure out where they cross with one of my ancestors.. this will help! Thanks

[@GenealogyTV]

Glad it was helpful!

[@LoveBattle]

Great video

[@GenealogyTV]

Thanks. It’s one of my favorites.

[@vancraven7688]

Amazing.

[@GenealogyTV]

Glad you think so!

[@marissarosaful]

Thank you, I am not researching in the USA but in Ireland and the census is no on ancestry.com so does not open the same way however with a few small modifications I have been able to achieve the same results for a street of people. Edit: this will make it so much easier sorting the workhouse census when only initals were provided.

[@GenealogyTV]

Thanks for sharing! Yes it can be used on other records if you have a way to copy the transcriptinos.

[@TankDogg-bm7es]

My ancestor only shows up on the 1880 census, Family tale is he took the fall for whatever and went to the pin. Supposedly dying in 1888, his wife remarried in 1889. And that's my 20yr+ brickwall my 3rd great grandpa.

[@lforbes4667]

Outstanding video! BTW, the paste special command in Google sheets would be, copy the selection that you want to paste into your sheet, right-click on the cell where you want to paste your selection, then click "Paste special", and then click "Paste values only".

[@GenealogyTV]

Thank you

[@conniejohnson9393]

Thank you spent hours trying to figure this out. Appreciate it.

[@susanmarr4277]

Hello Connie, I have watched so many of your videos over the last 3 days... thank you for what you are doing. I have a pre 2010 laptop with Family Tree Maker 2010 on it with my genealogy on it. I have made my tree in FamilySearch.org. I love it!

[@GenealogyTV]

Wonderful!

[@melsolomon8256]

That is Awsome now to find where my G-grandma lived when she had my grandma.

[@dbridge276]

If you place the cursor on the cell above the row number and left of the column A you can then click on any of the column or cell separation lines to expand the column or row. Additionally if some of the header titles are too long for the text in the cells, it is possible to force the two works to be split onto two lines, just position the cursor in the white space between say two words, hold the Alt down and press the return key, hey presto header is two on two lines in one cell, you can now make the column narrower.

[@GenealogyTV]

Thank you for sharing. 👏👏👏

[@pattyjackson4946]

Thank you for the excel spreadsheet tips! Question maybe you can help with! I have over 19000 hints on Ancestry, is there a good way to go through them?

[@GenealogyTV]

Yes. Don’t worry about any of them except the ones that surround your research question and Target Ancestors.

[@rebecca7243]

I just finished my Excel for one of my ancestors trying to find my late mother's parents. I only did one enumeration district. I didn't realized it! Now I will have to do the rest of the counties in South Alabama so I can find the one name I am searching for! But this is a great tool! Thank you! Btw, how did you find the link for the census record via Ancestry? I think I did mine wrong. Lol.

[@GenealogyTV]

Through the card catalog.

[@Historian212]

Hi Connie - I’m just catching up with this video and don’t know if you answer questions from old ones, but I figured I’d try. I’ve been looking for my paternal grandfather’s father for over 10 years - that is, since I was first able to access all the census data that show that the family story was a fabrication. Ack! My grandfather was born in England in 1888. I have a full brother, and he got a Y-chromosome test via FamilyTree, up to the 111 level. At this time, it’s too expensive to get the “Big Y” test. The results are scattered as to surnames. There are a couple that are slightly more frequent - one of which shows up around the birthplace of the generation older than my great-grandmother, who was born quite a distance away. But I’m keeping it in mind. My grandfather’s original middle name is a surname, as was common, and it’s not a family name among his mother’s relatives. So I’ve been taking that as a big clue. His birth registry entry seems falsified, as the US immigration and other records here have been. In fact, it’s possible that my grandfather’s mother my be an aunt or cousin. But I’m sticking with her as the bio mom for now. (They were very poor, and she was unwed, so unless she was paid to raise him, she wouldn’t have just taken him on. Her own father abandoned her mother when she was a teen, so they had a tough time of it.) I’ve slowly been researching the family name, seeking age-appropriate men who might have lived in or near the same city, or ones who might have been “travelers,” aka traveling salesmen or similar. On Ancestry, we have a tantalizing few cousin matches with that middle name in their trees. Alas, not enough people make their trees available. Still, a few have popped up in the 20-40 Cm range, which is pretty good for this many generations on. Alas, my father passed before I thought to test him. He has no brothers. A first cousin on my father’s sister’s side passed unexpectedly, and we aren’t in contact with his sister or her kids. Unfortunately. And since I don’t know what cousins to ask on the mystery great-grandfather’s side, DNA has to be trusted to luck. I’m trying to work up the courage to contact the larger DNA matches to ask about their families. It’s a tricky topic, obviously. I want to try this census method, but need to ask: the censuses in England are done in the “1” years. So I can do 1881 (6 years prior to conception) and 1891 (4 years after conception). I know most people didn’t move around as much then as we do today. But I’m wondering about whether searching for city directories closer to the conception year might not be as helpful in this case. I don’t know how accurate such info was for the poorer areas back then, but would you try that first, for indexed directories? So far, I know of one, but there may be more. If not, would it be likely that the father of an out-of-wedlock child would have lingered in the area for four years? I’ve tried checking bastardy lists and similar records, and so far haven’t gotten lucky with them. Thanks for any help.

[@bryanracey6756]

Brilliant idea! Maybe Ancestry could start providing the data this way too!!

[@GenealogyTV]

Wouldn't that be great!

[@douglasvilledarling2935]

Lol was totally thinking that

[@GenealogyTV]

Great minds think alike

[@ramsesemerson]

Note to Firefox users: excel will paste in one column from Firefox. We have to use a different browser. I finally saw a comment someone else made on the first video or I wouldn't know this either.

[@desertpatient]

Looking at this also would provide a series of census sheets for the same family. So instead of placing the image number in the far left column, I would only need to copy the family in 1850 then 1860 then etc which might provide information that would be useful?

[@margaretwoolley7335]

Connie, this tutorial has been a great help to me and I would like to return the favour. I use Libre Office for my documents and when I go to 'paste special' the final pop up box offers me the option to 'paste from line number'. This allows me to paste into my document without having to go back and remove all the lines of unwanted/repetitive information when I paste each page. I hope you can use this tip.

[@GenealogyTV]

Thanks for the compliments and the tips Margaret. I appreciate it.

[@irishdawn8387]

loved this can we do something like this to copy names from let's say family tree maker to import to excel bc I have an excel sheets to track data and there is way too many names to put in manually?

[@GenealogyTV]

I think that would be a bit much because you can just search names from within FTM. The idea is to find those we have not discovered yet.

[@staceygoggin1574]

I completed my 1st successful spreadsheet last night. Went 10 pages backwards & forward in the census with my brick wall. Nada. 😕 well, time to look some other sites. Great video btw!

[@GenealogyTV]

Well don't lose that hard work. It may come in handy as you learn more.

[@staceygoggin1574]

I was just telling my sister about you & how well you explained everything. I won’t give up. We’ve been trying to find out parents for a 2nd ggf. Like you a male cousin took the Y dna test to confirm the last name. Our fellow doesn’t show up until 1850. No idea who parents are. In the mean time I’m going to check card catalog & make more spreadsheets for some other lines. I did have to look up how to do the filters because my excel version didn’t have the same options. Again, thank you for your excellent videos.

[@debbenzenberg3575]

Fantastic information and very helpful, thank you. How would you go about something like this before Census records? I.e: 1700's My 5th Great Grandfather has been eluding me for years. I know the street and profession from my 4th GG birth record. (banging my head! lol)

[@GenealogyTV]

Good question. I’ll have to put some thought to that.

[@debbenzenberg3575]

@@GenealogyTV Thank you, that would be much appreciated.

[@suelane3628]

I will subscribe.

[@GenealogyTV]

Thank you

[@douglasvilledarling2935]

Love this! Two questions 1) how do you find out what name the DNA is under? 2) where do you find Bastardly bonds and what time frame do they exist under? Thx

[@GenealogyTV]

One, you’ll have to reach out to the test-taker and ask them. You might find it in their tree. And two, bastardy bonds are mostly in North Carolina and some in Virginia. I’ve only seen them in the 1800s. I do know they came from England originally, they were intended to prevent the county from having to care for a bastard child.

[@YesterdaysStuff]

If you click off the cell that has the link then right click on the same cell, a list of options will appear. The last item is Link, paste the url into the box that appears and that cell when clicked on will open a web page or a new tab in an open browser based on the link.

[@GenealogyTV]

Oh... great tip!