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How to know it is the right census when working off of little information

How to know it is the right census when working off of little information

Posted: 20 Jul 2015 9:15PM GMT
Classification: Query
Surnames: Yates, Blount
I hope this is the correct place to do this. There are several lines in my family tree where no living relative that I have a connection to can tell me many, if any, identifying facts about someone in our lineage. For example, I'm researching my grandmother's great-grandmother. I have a picture of her tombstone with the birth and death dates on them, but that's it. No names for her parents or any siblings. I talked to my grandmother and she said her Daddy never talked much about them, so she doesn't know anything more than I do. I found a census that has a misspelled first name (Allace instead of Alice - I think it could have been human error), but the age and state of birth for Alice is correct. It is a Georgia census from Decatur and much of my family is from that general area of Georgia. If this is her, I finally have her parents' names and the names of her siblings, but I don't know if I should accept it and work off of the information it gives me, or if there is just too little to go on to accept this census and what it has to offer. I don't want to be hasty and accept/use incorrect data, but I'm at a complete loss as to how I will ever continue with that lineage if I don't take a chance and start somewhere.

Has anyone else run into this problem? What would veteran researchers suggest for me to do? I would love any help or advice you could give me. Thank you so much!

Re: How to know it is the right census when working off of little information

Posted: 23 Jul 2015 6:59PM GMT
Classification: Query
I've had that problem before. I'm no expert but I'm a fairly advanced amateur. What I have done from time to time is set up a dummy tree and set it to private, so no one will copy it will-nilly, and then put in my questionable finds and start following out the descendents of the siblings and look for intersects with my known ancestors.

Re: How to know it is the right census when working off of little information

Posted: 24 Jul 2015 4:42PM GMT
Classification: Query
First find your grandmother on the census with her siblings and parents. If you are very young, you might have to start with her parents instead. Trace that person back through all the censuses to their birth. If you have trouble with maiden names, try to get the marriage certificate or record based on the male's surname and the woman's given name. Keep working backwards in time. Record all the siblings as you go back in time. That is one way to help identify that a family in census A is the same as in Census B if they moved. Yes siblings are born, marry or die but you will see a progression.

Each step of the way back get death, marriage, and birth certificates for your direct ancestors until you are far enough back they don't exist. Note these records are usually not on line and must be ordered from the government body that holds them, sometimes the county, sometimes consolidated at the state level.

When you get back before the formal records, counties often had ledger books recording births, and especially marriages and deaths. So check FamilySearch.org, visit county courthouses if you can, contact county historical societies.

There are 10 times as many records NOT on the internet as you will ever find on the internet.
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