yu might try this when searching census records

I was thinking about this one thing I do when searching census records it doesnt work all the time but once and while you will get lucky with it.
Ive used it on heritage quest and even ancestry.com too.
We all know from searching census sometimes you cant find the person your looking for because there first or last name is mispelled.
If you know the name of the county and state they were living in at the time of the census this is what you do. type in the in the first name John it will give you all the John's for that county. or type in the last name and it should do the same thing.

I was working on name one time and come to find it somebody has listed the family under the wife's maiden name and not the husband. so the whole family was listed like that even the husband named.

hope this helps somebody out with there research work.

patsy :)

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Charlene Gillespie on July 25, 2009 at 7:45pm

I knew where my grandmother lived in 1930 and could not find her anywhere. I searched the county one name at a time and found her....right where I knew she lived. The city was unincorporated. It is a hard way to find someone, but it worked. I would definitely recommend other methods first.

Permalink Reply by Kate Steere on July 26, 2009 at 4:47am

HI-
I did the same thing to find some of my FIL's family. I had taken a break on working on them since I had never found the family together on the census records. So, I found them by using the daughter's first name, her birth year, and NY, Brooklyn, and I searched through the T's listed, and found their German name spelled phonetically. :)

Now if I could just find the daughter in 1900, but I think she married, but I don't know who she married yet! :)

I think sometimes when people start researching they give up on information that doesn't fit what they think they should find. I know I'm guilty of it sometimes. :)

Permalink Reply by patsy adkins on July 26, 2009 at 1:14pm

wow thats great. you could try the daughter's first name in 1900 census. she might have stayed in the same county as parents or siblings.

Im the same way too. You find something on the census and your like that can't be them no way no how. But then you find out its them.

Permalink Reply by Teresa McVeigh on July 26, 2009 at 6:42pm

I've searched like you all have by all names singley and by initials, but I have also paged through the census page by page. However I still have not found my mother on the 1930 Census in any of her relatives' households or going through the county page by page.

I have also had good luck by tracing all the descendants. Sometimes you find grandmother living with the grandkid on a census, often with additional information. Descendants' death, birth and marriage certificates sometimes have some surprising information as well.

Permalink Reply by patsy adkins on July 26, 2009 at 8:15pm

You got that right Teresa. Ive found over the past few years that Obt's have a great deal of information on them too. Like siblings etc. Especially if you can find the ones back in the 1920's and 1930's and 1940's.
I wonder where your mom is at in the 1930 census. How old would she had been when the census came out? Did you check the neighbor's household perhaps. just an idea.

Permalink Reply by Marti Martin on July 31, 2009 at 10:15am

Another thing you can do is use the "wildcard"--say you have a Johnson, sometimes spelled Johnston---put in Johns* and it will pull up all names starting with "Johns".

Permalink Reply by Gail Winstanley on July 31, 2009 at 8:31pm

My great-grandmother is actually listed in the 1900 census twice, once in her father's home in West Virginia and again in the Maryland census as she was counted while visiting her aunt and uncle in Baltimore a month later. I've made it a habit to check various other family members if somebody that I know was still alive after the census I am searching through does not appear on in the listing.

Permalink Reply by patsy adkins on July 31, 2009 at 9:23pm

Good idea and thanks for sharing it.

by the way where at in West Virginia. I was born and raised in Charleston, Wv still live here too
patsy

Permalink Reply by Molly McKinley on September 7, 2009 at 8:29am

I have found this to be true in several of my searches. One or more ot the children were living with relatives working of farms or staying for the summer. My greatgrandfather was living with a nephew in one census while his wife was at his home. He must have had to get work elsewhere for a season. All sorts of searches can get results if you know the in-laws and brothers and sisters names.

Permalink Reply by Dae Powell on August 7, 2009 at 12:37pm

Another help is to locate an ancestor in a City Directory or Farm Directory for the timeframe in question. Jot down the names of the neighbors living nearby and search for the neighbors in the census. Sometimes you just have to try Cluster Research. It really works.
Happy Dae·
ShoeString Genealogy

Permalink Reply by Paul Drake on August 7, 2009 at 5:30pm

It seems silly to say, but remember that everybody had to be somewhere every day of life; often the "wheres" of a person is all you will have. So, if all else fails I Google the county, city, local societies, and then the archives of that State, and there learn of any information or publlcations those local history or genealogy societies may have published or otherwise made available.

After that, I often join those little societies for one year only. Those usually are quite inxpensive - often $10.00 to $20.00 per year, hoping that someone within that group may know of or has researched the family I want to know about.. If they have a newsletter, by joining you will gain that and may come in contact with whoever who is or has searched the local records extensively. Does this always work?? Of course not, but it is not a bad final resort.

Paul.

Permalink Reply by patsy adkins on August 7, 2009 at 6:36pm

thanks DAE for the suggestion thats one thing I havent played with yet on my research of my family..

Paul
Thats a good idea too. I do that sometimes and see what happens. Ive gotten infrormation from them that have been a lot of help.