This is part 2 of a 3 part series: Where Did My Ancestor Live? How Enumeration District Maps Can Fill in the Blanks. Part 1: Enumeration District Descriptions Part 2: Civil Districts and Other County Divisions Part 3: Maps of Enumeration Districts Civil Districts and Other County Divisions In this post, we will learn about the county division field on the census and how it can help us map our ancestors’ census location. In part 1 of this...
Where Did He Live? When researching in U.S. Census records, have you ever wanted to locate your ancestor on the map but the census place was unclear? This happened to me when I found my relative, James F. Maness, on the 1900 census. I checked the header info on the census form, but the ‘township or other division of county’ was listed as “4 district” and the field for ‘name of incorporated city, town, or village, within...
Are you sure you’ve found all of the clues in the census records for your family? After you look at the names, ages, and birthplaces, do you pay attention to the rest of the questions and answers? Census records are one of the most valuable tools for a researcher, not only for the information reported, but for the clues to other records. I recently revisited the 1910 census looking for clues on my great, great...
Are you the lucky recipient of your family’s genealogy? Do you have a box, a barrel, or, in my instance, a suitcase full of letters, documents, photos, family group sheets, etc? You are probably feeling overwhelmed with either joy or despair. Go ahead and be ecstatic that you inherited priceless stuff. Don’t despair because I’m going to show you how to take care of your papers, one step at a time. When I started...
Today, we have a guest post by one of our readers, Lindsey Crouch. Lindsey found our post about teaching youth to use census records, then adapted it for a younger age group. She’s here to share her documents and lesson plan so anyone can recreate the activity to teach children about census records. Enjoy! -Nicole —- Hi, I’m Lindsey I’m originally from Idaho and graduated from Utah State in social work. I’m a life-long learner and a mom...
Did you know that the individual giving the family’s information in the 1940 census is marked with an X? Or how about the estimated 1.2 million Southerners missing in the 1870 census? These are just two of the fascinating and helpful discoveries I made last week as I studied more about the history and details found in U.S. Federal Census records. In working toward my Accreditation goal, I am studying each major record group suggested...
Need a fun activity to help your youth learn to research census records? “Finding Franklin” gives them the opportunity to discover the wealth of information that can be found in a census. Questions about Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States lead the youth to find specifics about his family and occupation over a span of 48 years. They can then use the skills they’ve developed to find their own family in the census records....
