PolishOrigins(TM) Forum

Re: Can't find in US Census-Hard work pays off!

rsowa — Sat Nov 23, 2013 4:22 pm

Author: rsowa

Posted: Sat Nov 23, 2013 4:22 pm

Barbara, I also got a private message on this board that had to be spam. The delete key was my friend.

Regarding finding census records for folks you KNOW exist, you can't seem to find...I found another way that works at FamilySearch.org.

I enter the first name of a child that I know was alive at the time as the primary, then enter the first names of both parents, then a first name of someone else in the household in the "other person" box. That makes four first names (but no surname). I manged to find what I was looking for, but like others have said, the last name was so mangled that it is impossible to make sense out of. I suspect it was just a frustrating day for the census taker

Emails sent outside of Polish Origins

BarbaraZbiegniewicz — Sat Nov 23, 2013 2:59 pm

Author: BarbaraZbiegniewicz

Posted: Sat Nov 23, 2013 2:59 pm

I received a message at my email address that did not come from a Polish Origens alert and I don't know if I should reply to it. I can forward it to you.
BarbaraZbiegniewicz

Re: Can't find in US Census-Hard work pays off!

Perz — Mon Apr 12, 2010 5:53 pm

Author: Perz

Posted: Mon Apr 12, 2010 5:53 pm

If anyone is interested, Footnote.com is offering FREE (after you register) access to the total 1860 US census thru the end of April, 2010. I believe you can only search by name. I'm not sure how much junk mail I will get with it, but I used a junk email address to begin with.

Re: Can't find in US Census-Hard work pays off!

1/2pint — Sun Apr 11, 2010 11:53 am

Author: 1/2pint

Posted: Sun Apr 11, 2010 11:53 am

Try 1st name & birth year -/+ 2 or 5 (with, then w/o country of birth) with the town, county info.
If no help, Try doing a "no name" search with +/-2 or 5 on birth year, town & county. Find my Chicago people this way.......But remember, not everyone made the census.

CAN'T FIND MY FAMILY'S NAME

edouglaspratt — Wed Dec 09, 2009 1:49 pm

Author: edouglaspratt

Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2009 1:49 pm

Thanks for the encouraging tips, Nancy. Actually in just the last few days several people have helped me and I have found more information than I had hoped for.

It's networking like this with other genealogic searchers that seems to be the key. I've been linked with a woman in France who has been successful in her Polish search. I've even been referred to a well-recommended professional genealogist in Poznan who has helped others.

By the way, I found a pitfall that we can all watch out for...or that veteran searchers can help others like me to anticipate:

When I was searching the Ellis Island records, a man who looked like he could be my GGFather showed up. But partly because his name was a variant spelling, AND because he had no wife or children with him, AND because he was not from the town I was expecting, I ruled him out. He did in fact have his wife and the 5 children with him. Finding this would have been enough to identify him as my kin. But I was not finding them BECAUSE their first names-only were written in the Manifest; their last names were recorded below his as ditto marks. So they were not detected by the search engine. For some reason, his wife's first name did not come up with my first-name search, either. Here's how I finally found them all...

Sherrie had told me that in addition to the typed Manifest, I could get the hand-written Manifest. It was there in cursive that the whole family appeared, with the ditto marks for each child's last name, and their mother's last name spelled differently than their father's, all clear as day.

Y'all are great! Thank you, Nancy, Sherrie, Xenon, everyone.

Doug Pogorzala Pratt

Re: Can't find in US Census-Hard work pays off!

NancyM — Wed Dec 09, 2009 10:43 am

Author: NancyM

Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2009 10:43 am

Hi Doug,

I have also run into the problem of not being able to find people in the US census even when I knew they should be there - in one case the spelling of the Polish name had been so mangled that I would not have found it except for the frame-by-frame inspection that prismlizard recommends (Maciolek was recorded as Maccioca).

Quote:

Which gets me to a question. How can it be I get no results for the name when relatives use the name today? Wouldn't they show up in these searches?

Do you mean your present-day relatives are not showing up when you search the US census? Only records through 1930 are available (there is a 72-year moratorium on the public release of such records) http://www.census.gov/genealogy/www/ so you would not see anything recent no matter how you searched.

Re: Can't find in US Census-Hard work pays off!

edouglaspratt — Sat Dec 05, 2009 11:33 pm

Author: edouglaspratt

Posted: Sat Dec 05, 2009 11:33 pm

Okay, thanks, prism. That's encouraging.

I just posted a query about the Pogorzala's from outside Poznan, who emigrated in the 1890s to Buffalo. I've been thinking, "This has been our name for generations...I've entered variant spellings...how can there be no record whatsoever?"

Which gets me to a question. How can it be I get no results for the name when relatives use the name today? Wouldn't they show up in these searches?

Thanks, prism.

Doug Pogorzala Pratt, ppr_edp@bellsouth.net

Can't find in US Census-Hard work pays off!

prismlizard — Sat Mar 08, 2008 12:21 am

Author: prismlizard

Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 12:21 am

Ever look for an ancestor that you know should be there will no results. It commonly happens in genealogy. Yes, there is the easy way of search engines using surnames. But no luck. Then you should try variations and misspellings of the surname. This works many times. But sometimes this still does not produce results. Did you realize that many times the search engine only works with the main head of household surname because only that family data was entered for the search engine to use. What about a second family renting a room from the owner or an individual renting? Many times these individuals will not show up using a search engine on a US Census. I know because this happened in my lineage. I knew my grandmother was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1901. But it was not until I took the time at the library frame by frame of the 1900 US Census in Milwaukee every weekend for three months that I did finally find my family. This Czajkowski family were renters in the Sipowski household in 1900. Why did this happen? The wives of these two families were sisters. This commonly happened. So if you can't seem to find an ancestor that you are sure should be there, you might just have to spend the time and look at the entire census record of that area. It could pay off in a big way. Do not forget to also ask the next big question of "who is this other family group that a search engine does pull up when used". They are most likely very close family just helping your ancestor get started or back on their feet in bad financial times. Do you have a similar story or other ideas of tracking down missing ancestors in US Census?