Find Family in Census (EVEN THOSE ELUSIVE ONES!)

[@jille9650]

On inaccurate ages I've seen women's ages inflated in earlier census records of their marriage to perhaps cover for them having married very young. Then later in life they are shown perhaps closer to their true age.

[@AncestryAimee]

Very true! A lot of times on a woman's age, I look at her in a census with her parents and siblings. If you have kids born every couple of years, you can get pretty close on the correct age.

[@sr2291]

Two female members of our family did this. Got married at 13 and 14 and stated they were 19. Lol

[@Cheneyjoan]

My heritage is my home base for Greek, Sweden, French, and Belgian records.

[@AncestryAimee]

Good to know!

[@Jan-xp8yi]

I couldn’t find a great aunt in the 1950 census. She went by the nickname Dollie, as her birth name was very unusual. So searched by just Dollie and the census year. Then I found her and her daughter. They had been indexed under the neighbors last name, even though the census record had the correct name recorded. That was in Family Search.

[@AncestryAimee]

Excellent example Jan! Thank you for sharing that.

[@iamtheeliz]

happened to my family as well in the 1950 census i literally stumbled upon this last night how they were indexed with the neighbors last name

[@AncestryAimee]

@@iamtheeliz thanks for sharing that!

[@Cheneyjoan]

The only site with Greek records. I found my grandfather!

[@AncestryAimee]

Yeah! That’s wonderful!

[@TomCooper]

Something I have seen twice in my own tree is where a census taker has reversed first and last names, entering what should be "Gale, Preble" as "Preble, Gale". A side effect of this is that every family member gets a surname of Preble instead of a surname of Gale. My tree is only about 2500 individuals, and it's happened *at least* twice there, so I think this is an important thing to keep in mind.

[@AncestryAimee]

So true Tom. Thanks for adding that. Watch those things when you accept the “hint” too because it will mess things up.

[@TomCooper]

@Aimee Cross - Genealogy Hints yes, I always make index corrections on ancestry when I see mistakes, typos, or important variations.

[@AncestryAimee]

Yeah!

[@DeniseMSimpson]

So then is best practice to Add an Update to the Census record and or correct name when adding hint to person while still citing the source with incorrect information?

[@TomCooper]

@@DeniseMSimpson At least on Ancestry, citing the source shows both the original and the correction, so I always make the correction and cite the original source.

[@nytn]

oh my gosh YES. I have nearly cried tears of frustration over some ancestors that should be so easy and just are troublemakers with this! so timely, thank you, Aimee!

[@AncestryAimee]

You’re welcome. 😀👍

[@karmagal78]

I’ve been searching for my great great grandfather in 2 census years: 1870 and 1880. He was born in the 1830’s in France but he was here by then (his oldest 3 children, 1 of whom was my great grandmother, were born in Iowa). He does have a definitely foreign sounding surname. On a State census (the only one I can find from 1885 in Kansas), the name is spelled incorrectly as Buckle (versus Buchel, the correct spelling).

[@AncestryAimee]

Besides the tips in this video... You can do is do a wildcard search - if you don't know what that is, you can Google it. You can also look at the FAN club and find them in 1870 and 1880. Search for his children instead as mentioned. Or go page by page if you know where they lived at the time.

[@pamelawinkelmann6229]

Lots of great information, much of which I've already realized just from my own researching efforts, but much of my work right now is prior to 1850, when the tally system was used in the census, so my ancestors are lurking under the radar. I have 2 major brick walls that have been giving my family fits for over 50 years. The one I'm trying to chip away at should lead me back to Scotland via Ireland, but when you lack sufficient information, it makes searching difficult. For instance, my ancestor was born in Scotland about 1763, migrated to Londonderry with his family before 1773, when a sister was born there, left Londonderry, Ireland (supposedly) with 6 brothers around 1795 (the sister also came over at some point). My ancestor and his sister show up in Virginia both married (no idea if they married in America or Ireland). Their families travel together to Ohio and remained in the same area for some time. I don't know where they married, the names of their other siblings, what port they arrived at, the names of their parents, etc. I'm simply stuck in mountains of Virginia.

[@AncestryAimee]

You probably know the stuff in this video but something in it may help. kzbin.info/www/bejne/nIS5ep-djNKHfNE

[@lawrente]

Oh, wow! Mike is a wealth of census information. Thanks for getting him to sit down with you, Aimee!

[@AncestryAimee]

You bet! I completely agree! He was fun to talk to! A really nice guy too.

[@jeffhogan7991]

Just retired 53 yrs so looking for another hobby/ interest in Southern California. Been scanning tons of old 1900 pictures of my family. So I Searched a couple channels and enjoy yours. I think I’ll start from the beginning of your videos and binge watch. You’re a really good speaker - story teller and interesting and informative. Thought I’d go through your videos before spending money on sites. Thanks for the videos :)

[@AncestryAimee]

Thank you Jeff. I appreciate your kind words. I’m in So Cal too. Reach out if you need additional help. Beware. Genealogy is addicting!!! 😄

[@CharleneCTX]

I have a family I can't find in the 1910 census. They were in the same city for decades. I found them in the 1907 and 1911 city directories (no directories were published in between those). I can't find them in the 1910 census. I even went page by page, line by line looking for them in that city and the neighbor city across the river. The search continues.

[@AncestryAimee]

We’re they in the 1912 directory? Maybe they moved just before the 1910 census. City directories are usually one year behind. Another trick is to find their neighbors in 1910 from previous census records. Or maybe they were missed. It did happen.

[@VictoriaReginaAnn]

I love My Heritage!

[@VictoriaReginaAnn]

Thank you. Great info.

[@AncestryAimee]

Good to know!!

[@AncestryAimee]

Thank you!

[@nanfrostsfashionfocusstyle6250]

Good information. I have also wondered if a person in a household was compelled to give the correct name or proof of who they were.

[@AncestryAimee]

Great question! NO! Much like the last census for us. So thus we see errors, age variations and other incorrect information.

[@SunflowerSea234]

Thank you for this interview. I have other relatives doing some online searching with like Ancestry, but I haven't looked at much myself.❤

[@AncestryAimee]

You bet!

[@SwampCat96]

Great Show....lots of good information. Thanks and keep up the good work.

[@AncestryAimee]

Thanks for watching!

[@stephenburns3678]

Thank you

[@AncestryAimee]

Welcome!

[@DonaldTingle]

Aimee, I've run across the I think they were skipped, family missing from 1920 and 1940 census. I know where they lived in 1940, but no listing for them. They did move around a lot.

[@AncestryAimee]

Could be. Check city directories. Place them around 1920 and 1940 and then search the address. Maybe that will work.

[@roncadillac3987]

Thanks!

[@AncestryAimee]

Thank you Ron!!

[@donnanorth7324]

I have seen census from ~1830/40 in Ohio that are almost a white sheet of paper, yet there was an index that was suspiciously close to alphabetical order. What's up with that? Can certain images be re-imaged and re-indexed by Ancestry?

[@AncestryAimee]

That’s a great question! Actually, sometimes if you do look at a Census image on a different website, you will see a difference and sometimes it’s a big difference. So find the image on FamilySearch or myheritage or one of the others.

[@DeniseMSimpson]

Great 👍🏼 tips from Mike and questions Amy. Thanks 🙏🏼 Question: what is the best site for searching Portuguese records? I have a brick wall with great grand parents in Portugal. Critical date and name information is recorded differently on US immigration, naturalization and census records although their addresses and relationships match. Any tips to solve?

[@AncestryAimee]

I don’t. But would start you at the FamilySearch wiki page for Portugal.

[@DeniseMSimpson]

@@AncestryAimee Thanks, I tried before to no avail but will try again… Perseverance, right? LOL

[@BobTheSchipperke]

Ugh. I even tried the Fan club, but nothing on at least one set in the 1900 census.

[@AncestryAimee]

Hopefully this video will help!!!

[@MrHarryreed]

I just ran the data and 85% of my ancestors that are missing from the census records are missing from the 1840 and 1860 censuses. There has to be a reason for this.

[@AncestryAimee]

Maybe the name was misheard or misindexed.

[@annies4800]

Clarification at 10.04 the UK census enumerators were told to round down the ages of those aged OVER 15 years. A 14 year old should read 14, but a 19 year old could read as 15 after the rounding down to a number ending in 5 or 0.

[@AncestryAimee]

I was unaware as well. According to FamilySearch “Age (for adults 15 and up, the age was rounded down to the lower multiple of 5)” www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/England_Census

[@nickmiller76]

To clarify further: this was only in the 1841 UK census, and not all enumerators followed the instruction, and some did it sporadically. And for really old people the ages were supposed to be rounded down to the nearest ten years.

[@AncestryAimee]

Good to know. Thank you for adding that Nick!

[@tghodges1]

Handwriting of the enumerator can mess up index completely. A Weaver in my family was indexed as Meanes bc of poor penmanship. Only using the FAN method and knowing age and first names was I able to find them. By manually searching extra pages in the area I expected to find them.

[@AncestryAimee]

Such a great example of that type of situation. Thanks for sharing.

[@tghodges1]

@@AncestryAimee The name was written so poorly that if I didn’t know what it was I would have a hard time figuring it out. But my grandmother at age three was in the household with her grandparents where she was expected.

[@Mygraciously]

Gosh the gentleman looks so much like Pres Bill Clinton!