The "LOST" Census

I guess I should have some "order" in the blog/tips, but quite honestly, I think if I don't post my "ah HA!" moments when they happen, they may be lost out there forever.

My latest "AH-HA!" moment just happened a few minutes ago.

My grandmother lived in a VERY small town of Holton. Actually, it's more of a township, I believe, though, it has a zipcode....it is considered "unincorporated". She was maybe 5 miles north of "town" on 80 acres of land her dad owned. Her dad also owned an additional 40 just north of the 80. Next to the 40, was an additional 40 that her mother's dad owned (her grandfather). That 40 was sold to the McGeever family. I knew there was a John born in '24 and Elizabeth born in 23. Elizabeth married a Wilke and they were friends of my grandma's.

I was curious to their roots so I did a search plugging in Elizabeth McGeever, her year of birth, and "holton, MI".

Nothing except for in Illinois. I know nothing about them in Illinois, as least at this point.


None even CLOSE to the Muskegon County area. Not Newaygo. Not Oceana County. NOTHING.

UGH.

You will have "UGH" moments. They are bound to happen.

Here is what I did to overcome mine (at least one of them).

I knew Elizabeth Wilke was in Holton Cemetery. I knew her maiden name was McGeever. How many McGeevers do YOU know?? Exactly. So any McGeevers in that cemetery HAVE to be related, right?

In Cemetery Transcriptions (AMAZING website, BTW), I found a Patrick and Elizabeth McGeever. The dates seemed to make sense to be parents of John and Elizabeth so I went with it. Thankfully, whomever did the transcriptions also had headstone pictures (did I mention that headstones DO NOT lie?? USE THEM!).

I found this:




Yep. See that KEY piece of information on the headstone??

Illinois. ILLI-FREAKIN'-NOIS! WOOOOOHOOOO!!!

I plugged in the same information and used ILLINOIS versus Holton.

BA DA BING:





OK..I have NO idea why the other half of the above picture is not showing, but you get the idea: THAT WAS MY MCGEEVER. When I opened the census record, John and Elizabeth were listed as kids. WIN!

If you can't find what you want in the way you are looking, completely try to go about it another way! :) I now know the McGeevers had lived in Illinois (Thanks to a little thing called a headstone :) ).

Census Records

Probably one of the most popular resources for genealogy: CENSUS records. Census records will give you a TON of great information including all people in the household, their ages, their marital status, their relationship to the head of the household, their place of birth, parental places of birth, etc and so on. Census records are probably the most readily available and probably the best place to start.

One word of caution with census records: transcription errors. Census records are only as accurate as the person taking them. Watch for spelling errors. If you see SMYTH as a last name when you are looking for SMITH and all the residents names match, chances are that SMYTH really should be SMITH. You are ok to use that SMYTH record if everything else matches. This is a FREQUENT occurrence with immigrants' names coming from the Netherlands and Denmark!!! Just match all information before deciding if it's the same family you are looking for.

**AND...it wasn't uncommon to see MIDDLE names being used as FIRST names on census records. Your John D Smith may appear as Donald J. Smith on the census records!**

I've seen it previously, but because I ran into a CLASSIC example today with it, I wanted to make a point to address that this happens! My Loren Freguson was Archibald L. Ferguson, but because the parents and location matched, I knew Archibald=Loren and I discovered his middle name at the same time.

So you want to trace your roots?

I've always been interested in my roots...ever since I was in high school, but it wasn't until the age of the internet did I really start researching. It was, mainly, through trial and error and just plain DOING IT that I learned where to look, what to look for, and all that good stuff to get the information I sought.

Whenever I am getting started tracing for someone else, I always gather as much initial information a person can give me. This includes parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and MAYBE great-great grandparents. Information I request outside of names include approximate birth years, places lived, and any siblings.

Why so much? Well, generally, I don't always need great-great grandparents (depending on the age of the person requesting the research) or siblings, but if you get a name like SMITH, JONES, etc...all information you can get, the better off you will be.

EXAMPLE:

John Smith's great-grandparents are John and Jane Smith. EXACTLY. GOOD LUCK WITH THAT! But, we also know that John and Jane Smith had kids: John Jr., Charles, Mary, and Courtney. All common names, but COURTNEY (at least back in the times we are referring to). SO, if you come across a household in a census with a COURTNEY in it, chances are, it's GOT to be the family you are looking for. VOILA. Thank GOODNESS you had sibling names, etc :) You've found your family :)

MORAL OF THE FIRST ENTRY: gather as much basic information as you can!