Ohio Agricultural Schedules at the State Library of Ohio

As people moved into and across America, many of them had one primary objective: to find a piece of land where they could start a farm and make a life for their families. Personally, I’m descended from a lot of farmers. But there are all sizes and types of farms—wheat farms, vegetable farms, dairy farms, cattle ranches, and so forth. How do you find out what kind of farm your ancestor had, what he produced, how big it was, or what it was worth?

Fortunately, the U.S. government was interested in knowing that, too. Granted, their reasons were different than ours as family historians today, but their data will do just fine. From 1850 through 1880, they compiled an Agricultural Schedule along with the regular Population Schedule for each census year. These records provide a lot of interesting detail for our family stories.

Nancy of My Ancestors and Me recently wrote a wonderful blog post about the agricultural censuses. She described what they were, what questions the enumerators asked, and where you can find them. Because she did such a fine job, I suggest you hop over and read “Farmers in Your Family Between 1850 and 1880?” now. I was quite envious to hear that agricultural schedules for some states are available online. As far as I know, none of the Ohio ones are.

Here’s an example of what one page from an agricultural schedule looks like (this is Alexander Township, Athens County, Ohio, in 1860):

One of the largest collections of Ohio agricultural censuses (outside of the National Archives) is on microfilm at the State Library of Ohio in Columbus. Not all census years for all counties are there, but many are. I thought it might be helpful to give you a peek at this collection and a list of exactly what’s available. There is no name index for the Ohio agricultural censuses, so you need to know the county and the township your ancestor lived in to find him. You can get that information easily enough from the regular U.S. population census of the same year.

Here is a county-by-county listing of the agricultural schedules available at the State Library of Ohio:

Adams: 1850, 60, 70

Allen: 1850, 60, 70

Ashland: 1850, 60

Ashtabula: 1850, 60, 70, 80

Athens: 1850, 60, 70, 80

Auglaize: 1850, 60, 70, 80

Belmont: 1850, 60, 70, 80

Brown: 1850, 60, 70, 80

Butler: 1850, 60, 70, 80

Carroll: 1870, 80

Champaign: 1870, 80

Clark: 1880

Clermont: 1880

Clinton: none

Columbiana: none

Coshocton: none

Crawford: none

Cuyahoga: none

Darke: 1850, 60

Defiance: 1850, 60

Delaware: 1850, 60

Erie: 1850, 60

Fairfield: 1850, 60

Fayette: 1850, 60, 70

Franklin: 1850, 60, 70

Fulton: 1850, 60, 70, 80

Gallia: 1850, 60, 70

Geauga: 1850, 60, 70

Greene: 1850, 60, 70

Greene: 1850, 60, 70

Guernsey: 1850, 60, 70

Hamilton: 1850, 60, 70

Hancock: 1850, 60, 70, 80

Hardin: 1850, 60, 70, 80

Harrison: 1850, 60, 70, 80

Henry: 1850, 60, 70, 80

Highland: 1850, 60, 70, 80

Hocking: 1850, 60, 70, 80

Holmes: 1850, 60, 70, 80

Huron: 1850, 60, 70, 80

Jackson: 1850, 60, 70, 80

Jefferson: 1850, 60, 70, 80

Knox: 1850, 60, 70, 80

Lake: 1850, 60, 70, 80

Lawrence: 1850, 60, 70, 80

Licking: 1850, 60, 70, 80

Logan: 1850, 60, 70, 80

Lorain: 1850, 60, 80

Lucas: 1850, 60, 80

Madison: 1850, 60, 80

Mahoning: 1850, 60, 80

Marion: 1850, 60, 80

Medina: 1850, 60, 80

Meigs: 1850, 60, 80

Mercer: 1850, 60, 80

Miami: 1850, 60, 80

Monroe: 1850, 60, 80

Montgomery: 1850, 60, 80

Morgan: 1850, 60, 80

Morrow: 1860, 80

Muskingum: 1860, 80

Noble: 1860, 80

Ottawa: 1860, 80

Paulding: 1860, 80

Perry: 1860, 80

Pickaway: 1860, 80

Pike: 1860, 80

Portage: 1860, 80

Preble: 1860, 80

Putnam: 1860

Richland: 1860

Ross: 1850, 60

Sandusky: 1850, 60

Scioto: 1850, 60

Seneca: 1850, 70

Shelby: 1850, 70

Stark: 1850, 70

Summit: 1850, 70

Trumbull: 1850, 70

Tuscarawas: 1850, 70

Union: 1850, 70

Van Wert: 1850, 70

Vinton: 1850, 70

Warren: 1850, 70

Washington: 1850, 70, 80

Wayne: 1850, 70, 80

Williams: 1850, 70, 80

Wood: 1850, 70, 80

Wyandot: 1850, 70, 80

Whew, that’s a lot of counties, isn’t it? 

Some of the Ohio agricultural censuses are available on microfilm at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, which means you can order them for delivery to your nearest Family History Center. To see what they have, go to the article on “Ohio Census” at FamilySearch.org. Scroll down to the Federal Non-Population Schedules, and then to the Microfilm Images category.

The State Library of Ohio is located at 274 E. First Avenue, Columbus, 43201. It’s open 8 am-5 pm Monday to Friday, although as with any archive, you should call ahead to confirm if you’re making a special trip. I hope this information helps you discover more about your farmer ancestor in Ohio! 

--Shelley

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the U.S. Census (but were afraid to ask)

Archives.com, home of the 1940 U.S. Census Community Project, has released an interactive census graphic to celebrate the fact that the 1940 Census is now fully indexed and searchable, free to all, thanks to the contributions of thousands of volunteers. The graphic, called “The American Family Through Time” and set up like a board game, is fun to explore and informative to boot.

Clicking on one of the decades launches a descriptive page on that census, including population data from the U.S. Census Bureau displayed in colorful pie charts. Another click takes you to a handy list of questions asked on each census. Back on the main board, you can access graphics on occupations, housing, and education. There’s even a card pile of “Fun Census Facts” full of census trivia to keep you busy. It’s an entertaining way to illustrate what otherwise could be some rather dry material.

Progressing through the board really brings home the changes in census statistics over the years. Makes me wonder what the Americans of 1790 would think if they could see the country today. One thing's for sure: we’ve come a long way, baby.

--Shelley

Help Index 5 Million Names from the 1940 U.S. Census on July 2nd

In the three months since the 1940 U.S. Census was released, volunteers have been busy scouring batch after batch for the information that will ultimately create a free index to World War II America. And amazing strides have been made. But there’s still a ways to go, and in the patriotic spirit of the week in which we celebrate America’s independence, FamilySearch has issued a challenge for us all to rise to.

They’ve set a goal of indexing “5 Million Names” on July 2^nd, and you can help!

If you’ve already done some indexing, you know how fun and rewarding it can be. It actually becomes addictive after awhile. Now I admit I’ve slacked off after my initial efforts—I didn’t index a single batch in June, sorry to say. So this challenge is the perfect time for me to get going again. I want to be able to see FamilySearch meet its goal and know I helped a little bit. Besides that, it’s just fun to be part of a historic event in the making.

And if you haven’t tried indexing yet, well, there’s no time like the present. It’s easy, and doesn’t take much time once you get the hang of it. Just go to the1940census.com and click on the button that says “Get Started.” They’ll give you full step-by-step instructions (there’s only three) and a few sample records to try. Then you can pick the state you’d like to index and download your first batch. You don’t have to have any special skills, and there’s nothing intimidating about it.

When I first started indexing, I made some rookie mistakes over and over. For example, I thought “Same Place” and “Same House” were interchangeable terms (they aren’t). A few clarifications helped me a lot. The best summary I’ve seen of tips and clarifications for better results is FamilySearch Indexing the 1940 Census—How to Get it Right! by Kimberly Powell on About.com Genealogy. The few minutes it takes to read her article can save you time, raise your accuracy, and help you solve any problems you might encounter.

If you’d like to see the progress made on the 1940 Census Community Project so far, Leland Meitzler has the latest count here. He also has an update on how Ancestry.com is coming along with its indexing efforts (they have Ohio done now!).

Note that the definition of “July 2” is based on Greenwich Mean Time (London time). So in the U.S., for your batches to count for that day, you can actually start contributing them on Sunday, July 1^st at 5 p.m. Pacific Time, 6 p.m. Mountain Time, 7 p.m. Central Time, and 8 p.m. Eastern Time. Then figure 24 hours from your time, and you have the boundaries for the challenge.

So what are you waiting for? Let’s get indexing, have some fun, and set a new record! I wonder if there’s a category for “Most Names Indexed in a Day” in the Guinness Book of World Records?


UPDATE, JULY 4, 2012: We did it! A big thanks to everyone who indexed batches of the 1940 U.S. census on July 2^nd as part of the Five Million Names challenge. FamilySearch has reported that we blew past that goal, indexing over 7 million records in 24 hours. And if you add in the efforts of arbitrators, who processed over 3 million records, the final tally was (drum roll, please) 10,340,879 records added! How awesome is that?

Related Posts:

Finding Reeb’s Restaurant in the 1940 Census

Giving Back by Indexing the 1940 Census

A Fine First Day in Cincinnati

Well, the time for the 2012 National Genealogical Society Conference, “The Ohio River: Gateway to the Western Frontier,” has finally arrived. For me, it’s wonderful to have this conference so close to home. To those of you who are traveling from other states, welcome to Ohio!

I drove to Cincinnati this morning with my friend and colleague Stephanie Fishman of Corn and Cotton Genealogy and The In-Depth Genealogist. Our first stop was the Duke Energy Convention Hall to get our registration materials. NGS had everything well organized, and the process was quick and easy.

Then I was off to do a little pre-conference research. My first stop was the University of Cincinnati Archives and Rare Books Library. I was on a quest to get a digital picture of my great-great-grandfather’s 1881 Declaration of Intention. Parking and getting to the library on the UC campus was a challenge, but once I was there, everything went smoothly. I had called ahead as they suggest, and the librarian had the document ready and waiting for me. I'll share it here soon.

After I left UC, I drove to Vine Street Hill Cemetery, previously known as Carthage Road Cemetery. My great-great-grandparents, John and Mina Herrel, lived in Cincinnati from 1880 to about 1905. Sadly, that means that they buried three children in the city during those years. However, after viewing the cemetery records, it appears that the Herrel children buried there were not theirs. I’ll need to do more research to determine if they represent a previously unknown collateral line.

The office at Vine Street Hill Cemetery in Cincinnati

Back downtown, FamilySearch hosted an informative dinner program for bloggers at the Hyatt. Among the news they shared was:

• Updated and new collections include Ohio Births, Ohio Marriages, Pennsylvania Marriages, Philadelphia and New York Passenger Lists, and various types of Civil War records
• The 1940 Community Census Project has 650 societies participating and 460 blog ambassadors; for state status updates, see the1940census.com 
• To date, FamilySearch has logged 170,000 new indexers in 2012
• Six states have been published, eight states are at 100%, and eight more states are at 40%
• Arbitration is pretty much keeping pace with indexing efforts, lagging only a day or two behind
• If we keep going at the current rate, we could have the 1940 census fully indexed well ahead of schedule--perhaps as early as July

David Rencher of FamilySearch

Part of the attentive audience of bloggers

I’m looking forward to the start of the conference tomorrow morning. If you're at NGS, please keep an eye out for me and say hi!

Finding Reeb's Restaurant in the 1940 Census

Lately I’ve been busy indexing batches of the 1940 U.S. census from Franklin County, Ohio. It’s been fun to recognize some of the streets, as well as some of the surnames, from my hometown. I hadn’t actually tried to find any members of my family, though, until late the other night, when I decided to look for my paternal grandparents.

Edward Reeb

But before I found them, I found someone else first. And that person, Ed Reeb, is a man who profoundly affected my family’s life.

Edward F. Reeb was born in Columbus in 1880, the son of Alsace-Lorraine immigrant Henry Reeb and his wife, Pauline Lockenbach.(1) In 1911, he opened Reeb’s Restaurant at the corner of Champion and Livingston Avenues. It served draft beer, hot sandwiches, and hearty German dishes to hordes of hungry businessmen, politicians, and neighborhood families.

Reeb’s was hit hard by the double whammy of Prohibition and the Great Depression in the 1920’s and 30’s. My grandfather, Lloyd Ballenger, came on board in time to see Prohibition repealed in December 1933. Soon Lloyd was helping run the place from his usual spot behind the counter. Ed Reeb always attributed the restaurant’s survival during these hard times to his loyal customers and dedicated employees.

Reeb's Restaurant in the 1940's 

By 1940, the tide was beginning to turn on the Depression, and Reeb’s had established itself as a popular Columbus eatery and watering hole. And so as I began browsing the census records for the near east side, I found Ed Reeb living in an apartment above the restaurant. He was 60 years old and widowed. His sister Mollie Schneider, 72 years old and also widowed, was living with him.(2)

The census enumerator apparently turned the corner at Reeb’s, went down one side of Champion Ave. and back up the other before resuming his canvassing on E. Livingston Ave. My grandparents Lloyd and Nora Ballenger are found there, a couple of pages later, living in an apartment with their infant son above Resch’s Bakery. The Resch family also had close ties to Reeb’s and the Ballengers. They provided the crusty dinner rolls, melt-in-your-mouth doughnuts, and other baked goods for the restaurant throughout its existence, and were lifelong friends of my grandparents.

This is the last census in which Ed Reeb appears. He died March 2, 1943 of prostrate cancer at that same apartment. He and his wife, Estella, did not have children, and in his estate he left his beloved restaurant to four trusted employees. One of these was Lloyd Ballenger. Lloyd and his son, named after Reeb, bought the others out over time. In 1983, Lloyd celebrated his 50^th anniversary as employee-turned-owner of Reeb’s Restaurant.

Lloyd Ballenger with his son in 1940

As researchers, we’re encouraged to look at our family’s friends, associates, and neighbors to increase our understanding of their lives. My little excursion into my grandparents’ 1940 neighborhood has driven home that point to me. Ed Reeb, the Resch family, and the Ballenger family were intrinsically connected through the restaurant that stood at 1041 E. Livingston Ave. Even though I never had the chance to meet Ed Reeb, in a way I grew up in his shadow, playing games with my brother around the booths of the restaurant he created and exploring the subterranean coolers and prep kitchen. My first job was cranking hand-cut onion rings and fresh shrimp through the breading machine.

I didn’t realize before I started that poking around in census records made two decades before I was even born would trigger such strong memories. Reeb’s Restaurant is gone now, a victim of inner city decay. So it’s up to me and others who remember to record and preserve its place in history.

Copyright 2012, Shelley Bishop. All rights reserved.

Sources:

(1) “Ohio Deaths 1908-1953,” digital image, FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org: accessed 17 April 2012), death certificate no. 16002, Edward F. Reeb (1943); citing original records, Ohio Department of Health, held by Ohio Historical Society, Columbus; FHL microfilm no. 2,024,127.

(2) 1940 U.S. census, Columbus Ward 3, Franklin County, Ohio, population schedule, E.D. 93-44, sheet 4A, household 67, Edw. F. Reeb; digital image (beta), Ancestry (www.ancestry.com: accessed 17 April 2012); from original records, National Archives and Records Administration, microfilm publication T627.

Related Posts:

Lloyd Ballenger’s First Restaurant

Surname Saturday: Ballenger Family

There’s One in Every Family: The Life of the Party

Giving Back by Indexing the 1940 Census

It’s hard to miss the anticipation building over the release of the 1940 U.S. census in just a few days on April 2, 2012. Initially, I admit the idea of the census release didn’t stir up a ton of excitement for me, since I know where my grandparents were living at the time, and I don’t have any missing relatives. But I’ve found a new reason to get enthused: the idea of giving back to the community that’s given me so much.

As Jim Erikson said in a Google+ hangout last night, “We’re building something big.”

The 1940 census is a big deal, and indexing it is a big challenge. Personally, I’m impressed by the spirit of cooperation we’re seeing among some major names in genealogy—FamilySearch.org, Archives.com, and FindMyPast.com. The way they’re working together to recruit and train volunteers for indexing efforts is a good sign, I think, for the future of genealogy research.

I also found out that not only can you give back to the community as a whole by indexing, but you can also give back to specific societies. That’s right, you can assign yourself to a volunteer group, and the group gets credit toward incentives for the indexing you do. So if you have a local or state society you’d like to support, and they’ve signed up with FamilySearch to sponsor volunteers, you can attach yourself to their efforts. It’s easy to do. The article “Join the Crowd” on the 1940 U.S. Census Community Blog gives a link to a short flyer listing the few easy steps. There’s a video and a list of participating societies, too.

Since I had already registered as an indexer, it only took me a couple of minutes to join a group. I chose to link with Franklin County Genealogical and Historical Society in my home city. They’re a small but dedicated bunch, doing a lot of work with limited resources (and hopefully they’ll be getting a new website soon). So I’m happy to be able to support them. 

But I had lots of choices—Ohio alone has 35 different societies registered. You can choose one from any state--perhaps where your ancestors lived, or one that had given you help from a distance, or whatever you like.

You can even give back to yourself! The Census Community Project is running contests in which participants can win gift cards, Kindle Fires, and iPads, among other prizes. There's games and drawings. Visit the contests page to submit your name and be entered into all the contests.

So if you haven't already, join me in giving back to the genealogical community by signing up as 1940 census indexer. And give back to a local or state genealogical society while you’re at it. I’m sure they’ll appreciate it. Together, we can get this big thing done!

Finding Common Names in Census Records: Evans, part 2

Lately I’ve been working on the challenge of identifying three generations of my husband’s family, all named Evan Evans, in the census records of Montgomeryshire, Wales. Evans is a very common surname there, and it’s taken some strategic moves to narrow the field and find exactly the right family. If you haven’t read Part 1 of the story yet, with my first few strategies, you can find it here. As a refresher, here’s a cast of characters guaranteed to make you head spin:

• Evan Evans, born about 1840, who married Mary Hughes (Evan A)
• His father Evan Evans, born about 1812, who married Elizabeth Jones (Evan B)
• His grandfather Evan Evans, born about 1781, who married Elizabeth Reynolds (Evan C)

After the first flush of success finding Evan A and Mary with their children in the 1881 and 1871 censuses of Wales, I hit a roadblock with the hunt for Evan A as a youth in his parents’ home in the 1861 census. I had one candidate who fit the location well, but the father was widowed and the results inconclusive.

If you’re not getting anywhere, try a different tack

In a sailboat race, if a boat isn’t catching the wind, it will come about and head off on another tack. Since I couldn’t pin down either Evan A or Evan B in 1861, that’s what I had to do now. With a less common name, I might have broadened my search to adjacent counties. But that wouldn’t help here because I already had an overabundance of results. Another thing I could do was look at Evan’s neighbors in 1881 and 1871, and see if I could find them in 1861. But what I chose to do instead was look for Evan’s mysterious brother, John Higgs.

Higgs is a much less common surname and I quickly found John in Carno in 1861. But the census record didn’t give me the results I hoped for. He wasn’t living with the Evans family; he was living in Stephen Higgs’ household, and identified as Stephen’s brother. Evan was nowhere to be found. There was, however, a Hannah Evans, identified as “sister.” Hmmm. The plot thickened.

Yet another tack was in order. I left the 1861 census and decided to search in 1851. According to the family summary, I could expect Evan B to be about 39 years old, with a wife Elizabeth and a son Evan (A) about 11 years old. I had no idea if they had any other children. But I was tired of looking for Evans—I had Evans coming out the wazoo by this time—and this Higgs business intrigued me. So I started my search of the 1851 census of Montgomeryshire by looking for John Higgs, born about 1837.

And just like that, there was my family. With one important twist.

1851 Census of Wales, Evan Evans (B) (see source citation below)

• Place: Trawscoed township, Carno, Montgomeryshire, Wales
• Evan Evans, head, married, 37, farmer (90 acres) employing no man, born in Carno, Montgomeryshire
• Hannah Evans, wife, married, 45, born in Carno
• Children: Mary Evans, daughter, 13; Evan Evans, son, 11; Hannah Evans, daughter, 9; Rebecca Evans, daughter, 7; Margaret Evans, daughter, 5; Stephen Higgs, stepson, 22; Elizabeth Higgs, stepdaughter, 17; John Higgs, stepson, 15 (all born in Carno, Montgomeryshire) 

Form a hypothesis if you find unexpected results

As you can see, Evan B wasn’t married to Elizabeth in 1851, but to Hannah. There’s no mention of Hannah in the family summary, so how do I really know this is the right family? I needed to make a hypothesis and test it with other evidence. The hypothesis I drew up is: If Evan Evans married Elizabeth Jones, as asserted in the family summary, she died prior to 1850. Evan remarried to a woman named Hannah, who previously had been the wife of a Mr. Higgs. She brought at least three children—Stephen, Elizabeth, and John Higgs—from this marriage into Evan’s household.

I decided to look back to the previous census, 1841, the earliest one available, for more clues. I searched for Evan Evans (B), born about 1812, in Montgomeryshire. Ancestry returned 57 results. Based on my locality information, I narrowed that down to six likely records. One of these, in Trawscoed township, Carno, was clearly a better match than any of the others. It was the household of Evan Evans, a 30-year-old farmer, with Hannah Evans, age 35; Mary Evans, 3; Evan Evans, 2; Hannah Evans, 9 months; Elizabeth Higgs, 8; John Higgs, 6; Thomas Rees, 15, a servant; and Mary Benbow, 75, Ind. (“of independent means”). Relationships were not stated.

1841 census of Wales, Evan Evans (B) (see source citation below)

This census tells me that Evan’s supposed first wife, Elizabeth, as well as Hannah’s husband Mr. Higgs, died before 1841. I adjusted my hypothesis accordingly. It’s pretty safe to assume that Evan and Hannah were married at the time this census was taken. Most likely, little Hannah Evans was the daughter of Evan and Hannah. It is not possible to determine from this record who the mother of young Mary and Evan Evans was. This census also gives me another name to research: Mary Benbow. Could she be Hannah’s mother, and therefore a clue to her maiden name?

Search for correlating evidence

The census records of 1871 and 1881, where John Higgs is listed in Evan Evans’ household as his brother, support my hypothesis. And the odd result I found for John Higgs in the 1861 census, where he was living with Stephen Higgs, brother, and Hannah Evans, sister, makes perfect sense now. It also made this result from the 1861 census, where Evan B was widowed but living in Carno with children Mary, Evan, Rebecca, and Margaret, look like the correct one:

1861 census of Wales, Evan Evans (B) (see source citation below)

This meant I had five decades worth of census records that were in agreement with one another. The next logical thing to look for was a marriage record for Evan Evans and Hannah Higgs. Unfortunately, very few Welsh marriage records are available at FamilySearch.org, and none at all prior to 1916 on Ancestry.com. Neither could I find any newspapers from Montgomeryshire.

Ancestry.com does have a FreeBMD Index to Welsh death records that begin in July 1837. I searched for an Elizabeth Evans who died between 1837-1840 in Montgomeryshire, and got 29 results. Narrowing it down to the Newtown registration district left me with 12 prospects. Unfortunately, the index does not provide any personal information, so I was unable to tell if any of them might be my Elizabeth. Next, I searched for a man with the surname Higgs who died during the same time period. There were no results in Montgomeryshire, which suggests he may have died prior to when the index starts. Finally, I searched for a Hannah Evans who died between 1851-1861. Again I received way too many prospects in the Newton registration district, with too few details to identify my Hannah. A search through the Welsh death records on FamilySearch.org returned similarly inconclusive results.

As a final step, I searched for the grandfather, Evan C, in the 1841 census. The family summary indicated he was born about 1781, lived in Carno, had married Elizabeth Reynolds, and had children named Evan, Richard, Roger, Maurice, and Mary Elizabeth. Now I just love that name Maurice. It is unusual enough that I rarely get multiple results for him—and with a common surname, you can’t ask for more than that. I’ve already researched Maurice Evans after he immigrated to Columbus, Ohio and have his obituary. He would have been about 18 years old in 1841, and that made quick work out of finding the right family—living in Trawscoed township, Carno—in the census.

1841 census of Wales, Evan Evans (C) (see source citation below)

Evan Evans (C), age 60, had no wife listed and apparently was widowed in 1841. He still had three of his children at home: Roger, Maurice, and Elizabeth. The fact that his son Evan was not living with him supports finding Evan B as the head of his own household in 1841, in the exact same locality as his father. The puzzle pieces fit.

Draw your conclusion and plan future action

Here’s my conclusion: Three generations of the Evan Evans family lived in Trawscoed township, Carno, Montgomeryshire, Wales, between 1841-1881, as evidenced in the census records of that locality. One thread that links the records together is the presence of John Higgs, stepson of Evan B. While more research is needed to confirm the results found in these census records and identify the wives of Evan B, it will primarily need to be done offline in archives and repositories, or possibly on UK-specific websites.

To recap, here are the strategies I used to locate my Evans family in the census:

• Compile background information on your family
• Start your search where you know the most
• Milk every bit of info from the records you find
• If you’re not moving, try a different tack
• Form a hypothesis if you find unexpected results
• Search for correlating evidence
• Draw your conclusion and plan future action

What do you think? Have I made my case for finding the right family? Do the strategies I used seem like they’d be helpful in your own census searches?

Source citations:

1851 census of Wales, Montgomeryshire, Carno, Trawscoed Township, folio 397, page 13, household 52, Evan Evans; digital image, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com: accessed 9 January 2012); citing original records, The National Archives of the UK, London, GSU roll 104258, class HO107, piece 2496.

1841 census of Wales, Montgomeryshire, Carno, Trawscoed Township, folio 16, page 2, line 16, Evan Evans; digital image, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com: accessed 9 January 2012); citing original records, The National Archives of the UK, London, GSU roll 464338, class HO107, piece 1436.

1861 census of Wales, Montgomeryshire, Carno, Trawscoed Township, folio 32, page 5, household 21, Evan Evans; digital image, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com: accessed 9 January 2012); citing original records, The National Archives of the UK, London, GSU roll 543256, RG 9, piece 4247.

1841 census of Wales, Montgomeryshire, Carno, Trawscoed Township, folio 21, page 11, line 24, Evan Evans; digital image, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com: accessed 9 January 2012); citing original records, The National Archives of the UK, London, GSU roll 464338, class HO107, piece 1436.

Related Posts:

Finding Common Names in the Census: Evans, part 1

Evans Family Portrait: Wordless Wednesday