Friday, August 28, 2015

US Census Records


The 1900 US Federal Census was a big improvement with regards to family information as it provided a number of new bits of information on one's ancestral family. A census take would ask the following questions as listed by CensusFinder.com.
  • Name
  • Address
  • Relationship of each person to the head of the household
  • Color/Race
  • Sex
  • Date of Birth: Month and Year
  • Age at last birthday
  • Marital Status
  • Number of years in present marriage
  • Mother of how many children
  • Number of these children living
  • Place of birth
  • Place of birth of their Father
  • Place of birth of their Mother
  • Year immigrated to the U.S.
  • Number of years in the U.S.
  • Whether Naturalized or not
  • Occupation
  • Months not employed
  • Attended school (in months)
  • Can read
  • Can write
  • Can speak English
  • Owned or Rented
  • Owned free or mortgaged
  • Farm or house
  • Number of farm schedule
This additional census information makes it easier to locate one's ancestors. The combination of immigration and naturalization information helps to locate any citizenship papers.

If the number of years married exceeds the time they were in the U.S., you know that the marriage took place perhaps in the country of birth.

We are definitely fortunate to have multiple locations to view these census records online. They are available from:
Finding one's family in the U.S. 1900 Census can provide a gold mind of ancestral information!

Comments Are Always Welcome!

Building Bridges for All Generations!

claire@timelessgen.com

 (c) 2005-2015, Timeless Genealogies, All Rights Reserved

Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Beginning Research To Extend Family Lines


Starting with the above chart we first turn to the Scotland Census records as often parents are living with their children as a family. As stated in the previous blog, we are only working with transcriptions provided through Ancestry.com and FindMyPast.com as the originals are only available on ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk which is a paid site unless you wish to locate them on microfilm at a local Family History Center.

The 1841 England Census doesn't state where an individual was born, however, all the censuses from that point on do and so with Janet having died the latest, we should be able to locate her place of birth in both the 1851 and 1861 England Censuses. 

It's valuable to establish and confirm what we have to begin the research, here is the 1841 Scotland Census for this family:

(1)

There are two children missing from this listing, William and Jessie. William is old enough to either be married or working as a servant, while Jessie is too young for either of those situations and could be staying with friends and/or other family members. The listing shows who was in the home on one specific night.

The 1851 Scotland Census provides additional family information:
(2)

At this time, Janet is a Widow as her husband died in 1849. She is here with 3 of her 5 children. James and Elizabeth are not with her and most likely married. Unfortunately she is listed as a "Pauper St. Cuthberts" which happened often when a spouse has passed away and circumstances were not the best for those left behind. Note that her daughter Jessie is a 'house servant' and her other son, Charles, is an 'errand boy' while her older son William is a 'day labourer'. 

At this point, we know that Janet is stated as passing away in 1867 so she should be in the 1861 Scotland Census, we did locate her living with one son, James who is a labourer. It was thought he might have been married as he was not living with his mother in the 1851 Census so most likely he was away working.

(3)

Janet dies in 1867, unfortunately as a pauper, but here she is with her son James.

In the next blog, we'll take a look at the US Census records to show the differences between countries.



(1)Ancestry.com. 1841 Scotland Census [database on-line], Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. Parish Edinburgh St. Cuthberts;  ED: 24A; Page 6; Line: 1310, Year 1841. <http://goo.gl/Z9FMPj>.
(2)FindMyPast.com 1851 Scotland Census. Reels 1-27. General Register Office for Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland. Parish: Edinburgh St. Cuthberts; ED: 29A; Page 21' Line 11; Roll: CSSCT1851_183; Year: 1851,<http://search.findmypast.com/record?id=gbc%2f1851%2f0018799499>.
(3)FindMyPast.com 1861 Scotland Census [database on-line], Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. Parish Edinburgh St. Cuthberts; ED: 15; Page: 11; Line: 19; Roll: CSSCT1861_124 <http://search.findmypast.com/record?id=gbc%2f1861%2f0024206633>
  
Comments Are Always Welcome!

Building Bridges for All Generations!

claire@timelessgen.com

 (c) 2005-2015, Timeless Genealogies, All Rights Reserved

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Help to Choose What Line to Research


As we ended in our last blog I was at a point of choosing to extend one of the family lines from the following list:
  • William Gimson
  • Thomas Marsh
  • Francis Stallabrass
  • William Andrews
  • Anne Brignell 
As I reviewed of the above, I realized that they were pretty far back in the 1700s; as this is a beginners blog I felt I should try and find a family that needed additional research from the later 1800s which would be about the time period grandparents or great grandparents. 

Using the Custom List feature in my Ancestral Quest software I created a list of of 'End of Line' from my current database. 



Now there will not be as many individuals in your new family file but you still can get a report from what has been entered thusfar in your program. I've chosen Janet Boyd and William Pentland to hopefully extend at least one generation for the moment. Here is all we have at this point:



We do have their children but are concentrating on extending either one of these lines at this time. 

Our next blog will begin with the Scotland Census Records which are available in transcription format on Ancestry.com. The actual copies of the originals are only available on ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk.

Watch as we search for clues to extend and add more information for William Pentland and Elizabeth Boyd.


Comments Are Always Welcome!

Building Bridges for All Generations!

claire@timelessgen.com

 (c) 2005-2015, Timeless Genealogies, All Rights Reserved

Monday, January 26, 2015

Beginning Research Steps..


You've done all the basics, added all the information from family members and relatives and you still have many bits of missing information and you've only gone back a couple of generations, now what?

This is where you begin to take time to look for the missing information and family members from various online databases or repositories if necessary and become a bit of a genealogy detective.

Looking at your pedigree chart is the first step to finding what is missing. If I look at mine, I notice that I've got a number missing ancestors to locate:



I'd like to introduce you to the Research Process...if you follow this you will always be able to be through in your research and follow its design. FamilySearch Wiki has a great article on this which takes you step by step through the research process: https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Research_Process

1) Identify what you know
2) Decide what you want to learn
3) Select records to search
4) Obtain and search the records
5) Evaluate and Use the Information

In my diagram above, I could use this guide to seek out the parents of William Gimson, Thomas Marsh, Francis Stallabrass, William Andrews and Anne Brignell.

With all the choices, I need to carefully look at each one and follow these steps.

Have a stab at it, next week I'll write up my step by step and let's see how good each of you did. Feel free to share.

Comments Are Always Welcome!

Building Bridges for All Generations!

claire@timelessgen.com

 (c) 2005-2015, Timeless Genealogies, All Rights Reserved




Friday, January 9, 2015

A New Year - New Findings!


Last year our emphasis was on gathering the information around us, from our home, from living family members and creating a file system to keep them organized. 

Just like the flower buds above, the seeds of family history have been sown and will blossom as you continue to build upon what you have done up to this point.

I'd like to review what we've done thus far and move onto the research process in hopes that all who are following this blog can get caught up as a New Year begins. Click on the following links to review what we have covered in 2014:


Enjoy reviewing as we begin 2015 with the resolve to add and grow your Family Tree. 

My dear friend Pat from Dear Myrtle is also reaching out to new individuals through her new series entitled Beginning Genealogy. This is the link to her first episode done on Wednesday, January 7th, 2015.

With all these great aids and ideas its going to a Family History feast for 2015!

Comments Are Always Welcome!

Building Bridges for All Generations!

claire@timelessgen.com

 (c) 2005-2015, Timeless Genealogies, All Rights Reserved