I received a couple of genealogy requests yesterday (thank you, finally some feedback!) and I've agreed to address both concerns. I'm going to start with the question about the proper way to search a census.

 

Every week, before our shift at the family history center, we have a training meeting where we learn new and wonderful things about how to use the FamilySearch database. A couple weeks ago, our trainer made the comment that when looking for someone you need to "start with what you know." Although I had never put it in those terms, I realized that I've been doing that for years. Although he was talking specifically about birth and christening records, when dealing with a census record the concept is no different.

 

So, what does it mean to "start with what you know?" Well, the comment that spawned this answer was this: "The idea of looking through a huge database of names looking for a name I don't know, in hopes I might be able to attach birthdays or some such to narrow it down...." If you are overwhelmed by the prospect of scouring countless censuses in this fashion, I don't blame you! That would take an inordinate amount of work, and probably result in you giving up long before you found what you're looking for!

 

To narrow down your search just remember to "start with what you know."

 

Let's say you are looking for your 3rd great grandfather, John Doe, born 1845 in Tennessee. The only other things you know about him are that he married Jane Friday (born 1847) in 1865, also in Tennessee, and his son, John, is your 2nd great grandfather.

 

Okay, now what? Censuses in the US are taken every 10 years (although, for some reason, they seem to have skipped 1890), on the zero year of the decade (i.e. 1830, 1840, 1850, etc). Censuses in England were taken every 10 years on the one year of the decade (i.e. 1881, 1891, 1901, etc). This is important to know because if the person you're looking for was born and died between census years, say, 1882-1889, then they will never be on any census.

 

So, let's get back to our John Doe. We want to find all of the censuses that John was in to better narrow down our search for his parents, but because we don't have his death date we need to start at the beginning, so we're going to start with the very first census he should be found in, the 1850. Now, bear in mind the relatively narrow scope of a census record (and again, the older the record, the less information it will contain). Censuses may show the age of the individual at the time the census was taken, but they don't necessarily give the year. The birth year you will likely find associated with a census record is the estimated birth year based on the age at the time of the census! So if the census was taken before the birthday that year, then the estimated date will be one year off. So what we know is that John was born in 1845, so in 1850 he should be around 5 years old. What you need to look for then, is all the census records for John Doe born 1844-1846, in Tennessee.

 

A word of caution about locations. Ignore the Establishment's obsessive belief that people never moved around, because it's patently false. People moved around! In fact, there are certain times in history when great numbers of people moved around a great deal! Like during the Great Depression, or the Westward Expansion. So don't get bogged down by the determination that if you can't find a John Doe born 1845 in Tennessee, then none of these John Doe's are yours.

 

How do you combat this problem? By working from what you know. If your 2nd great grandfather (John Doe's son) was also born in Tennessee then it's likely the family didn't move around that much. But if John Doe Jr was born in Georgia, then take the Georgia records into consideration, too.

 

Okay, so we've found all the John Doe, 1844-1846 in Tennessee records, now we look for other tell-tale signs that this may be your John Doe.

 

Within about the last 100 years, naming conventions have changed quite perceptibly. Way back when, it was extremely common for families to name their children after family members, so it was of a decent facility to link families up. So, one of the best ways to determine if this is your John Doe is to compare the names in the census record to names of his children. It is quite likely that he's named at least one of his children after his father, grandfather, or an uncle. So look for those signs. Let's say you find a record that seems to fit the bill, okay, hold onto that one.

 

Now, let's look for John in the 1860 Census. By 1860 he should be about 15 years old. Again, looking for any John Doe's, born 1844-1846 in Tennessee, try to find a record that seems to match the one we found for 1850.

 

Another point here: it was quite common for parents to wind up living with their children at some point during their declining years. Remember that as you're looking through the list of people living at that address because, in this way, it's possible to find the parents of your ancestors wife, too.

 

In all of this, you're looking for sameness, for familiarity. And yes, I say that right after saying that people moved around a lot. But the thing is, humans are predictable and they work in predictable ways. Until it became unpopular to give your children conventional names, it was fairly easy to identify which child belonged to which family because the names were all "family names." These days it's a good deal more difficult because of the unfathomable popularity of naming children after furniture or internet slang. But it's okay, because we're looking for normal people.

 

So, now we've found an 1860 record that matches our 1850 record, and we're ready to tackle the 1870 record. By now, you'll remember, our John Doe was married to Jane Friday. So what we're looking for is a little different. Now we're looking for a record that, most likely, shows John as the head of house, and a wife named Jane. but wait, there's more! Your 2nd great grandfather, John Jr was born two years after their marriage, in 1867, also in Tennessee, so now you can add him to your search! Yeehaw! So, we're looking for John Doe, born 1844-1846 in Tennessee, with wife Jane, born 1846-1848, and a son John, born 1866-1868.

 

This is how to do a proper census search. Start with what you know, and work toward what you don't. It's also possible to conduct this "backwards," or starting from his death date, assuming we know it. Again, start with what you know. If you don't have death information then you don't know that and it's pointless to start from that end (maybe he died young and is only in a few records). Always start with what you know and work back to what you don't.

 

Revelation 20:12-13