Have you ever wondered: How can I find my ancestors along with finding house history facts about them that have been underground or unknown? If so, you're on the right track because the federal census records of Canada, Usa, and England and other countries, oftentimes provide great treasures house history data along with the individuals names, many details about their lives, and other relatives that were living with them - often along with parents of whether the male head of household or his wife.
Starting the process of exploring the details of census records can seem almost overwhelming, but in this age of computers and the internet it is normally easy and fruitful. Many census indexes have been compiled (by thousands of volunteers), and once you know where to find them and how to use these indexes, finding lost relatives is most often fast, easy, efficient and quite thrilling with many of the discoveries.
Knowing basic details about the Canadian and the Us Federal Census records is very helpful for most population living in North America. Census records where data on every member of the household was collected began in 1850 for the Usa and 1851 for Canada. After that, every decade a new census was taken and details on every member of the household was gathered. One of the most efficient techniques for conferrence a large estimate of detail about a house is to supervene them straight through various census records every 10 years. In the Usa, there are high ability census indexes ready for 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, (not the 1890 which was destroyed by fire), 1900, 1910, 1920, and 1930. In 2012 the 1940 records should be released for indexing. In Canada, good census indexes exist for most of Canada for the years 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891,1901 and 1911.
These census indexes are scanned, digitized and made ready online for communal use. Some are free, others are only ready for a fee.
When I want to find my ancestors, a great feature about these online census records is that in usually, an online crusade can swiftly find a whole house in several succeeding census periods. It is not unusual to find an ancestor who was born in 1847 for example, in the 1850, 60, and 1870 census still living at home with their parents. In the following census records of 1880, 1900, 1910 and maybe even the 1920 and 1930 census as well, you may find them with their own growing families and ultimately living in old age with their children. This is possible, but for a collection of reasons, an ancestor may not show up on all (or any) of those census indexes.
One of the reasons an ancestor may be missing on an index is that the personel who was reading the original census page (and then transcribing them for later be indexing), may not have been able to fully read the poor handwriting or the fading original record. Often times a Henry James for example, may have ended up being indexed as a Harvey Jones. Because of these kinds of transcription problems, it's helpful to know where the person for whom you are looking, lived. If you know their location and still can't find them in the census name index, then you can uncover everyone in that county and methodically look straight through each of the original records. That can be a time appealing process and I recommend it only after trying a wide collection of searches in the indexes, but this manual crusade formula does often find the elusive relative.
One of the easiest ways to find these indexes is to find a communal library or a house History town settled in one of your neighborhood chapels of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (they are free to use - find them in the phone book or uncover the nearest location by using the online locator here: http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/Fhc/frameset_fhc.asp ). Ancestry.com is someone else great alternative. They are a "for profit" communal enterprise that has a large estimate of very high ability census indexes for many countries world wide. Ancestry.com is not cheap. However, for the serious genealogist, a subscription to their services is often worth every penny.
Ancestry.com does have a free 14 day trial that gives you entrance to many of their records. If you are just beginning out or if you're on a tight budget, then, I would recommend that you first fetch as much data as possible from your own sources and from the memories and records of your close living relatives. After you have done that, then if you go to a communal library of go visit the very helpful folks in the Latter Day Saint house History Centers, you can learn more about what is ready at Ancestry.com and how to use that resource. Once you have learned the basics, you'll indeed be able to get the most out of your free 14 day trial from Ancestry.com.
Other good (and some free) census indexes can be found online by doing a Google search. One of the best free census indexes I have found ( for those who have Canadian ancestors) is automatedgenealogy.com. This website takes a itsybitsy bit of exertion to learn how to use it effectively, but once you do, it is simple and fast to use and the data is extremely reliable. Regardless of the country in which you are searching, be sure to use crusade engines (like Google.com) and crusade for terms like: "Us Census Virginia" or "Canada Census Ontario".
Another principal study tip is to know that the 1900 census in the Usa, and the 1901 Census in Canada both consist of a large estimate of information. They both consist of (in most cases), both the person's month and year of birth, their sex, what association they had to the head of family, their occupation, what country (and normally the state or province) in which they were born, if they were married, single, widowed or divorced, and if they were married - for long they had been married. For the wife in a family, you can normally find out how many children she had had during her life and how many were still living. The records normally tell when they immigrated ( if they did), and where the person's mother and father were both born. These indexes and their fundamental census records, consist of a gold mine of data that is helpful for the next step of your house tree sleuthing.
These census indexes and records are very rich resources. Learn about them and come to be familiar with the tricks of mining them thoroughly. Meet librarians or volunteers in the house History Centers and ask them questions. You will soon learn that the census records of most countries provide a tremendous estimate of data for you to use when you're ready to take the next step on your genealogy hunt. Have fun, enjoy the process, build persisting relationships, have tons of good luck and happy hunting!
No comments:
Post a Comment