Week 5 Census

The Week 5 prompt is "In the Census." What intriguing find have you made in a census? What has a series of census records shown you? Do you have an ancestor who constantly ages only 7 years between censuses? (Those are fun!)

I was thinking of using my extra post that I did last week for this topic. Since I found so many interesting details about my mother on the 1940 Census. But that felt a little bit like cheating. You can read about it here if you want.

I also thought about sharing the first census I ever worked on, where I found my Grandfather as a son. It was an exciting moment for me. A first find after being away from Genealogy for a very long time. 

I have decided to go in a completely different direction.
On Tuesday I took a class at the Mesa Arizona 

Family Search Library. 

It was on Irfanview, the ultimate image viewer. 

This little free download is very slick. 

I can't wait to use it more. 

If you do decide to use it and download it, it was recommended to the class to download it from CNET. 

I did do that. One of the other students was confused because it comes in as iview.  That is the correct file name. 

So what is so great about this little software. 

Let me show you.

In the 1920 US Census my grandparents are on the bottom of one page and my mother is on the top if the next page. 

I am sure this happens to a lot of people. 

Above are my grandparents and Aunt and Uncle. 

Here is my mother.

And just to get a better idea, here is the top of the Census, with the column names. 

Now with a simple click of a couple of buttons I can make this. All three sections into one imagine. So much nicer for a digital scrapbook or even a paper family history scrapbook. Or even for your digital files or genealogy software.

This was new to me and I feel it is a handy tool and worth sharing. 

Happy Searching!

Census Idea

I was thinking the other day about what year I would find myself on the census and what year it would be released. And it gave me an idea if any of my future generations wanted to find me on census would they know where to look? I am a transplant to two different areas of the country from my home state where I was born. So I thought I would make a list of census years and where I lived so I could at least get them pointed in the right direction. I was a little surprised when I started working on this that I will be on only one census in my home state of New York. Then I realized that I missed one whole census because I was out of the country severing a church mission. So instead of leaving everyone wondering I thought I would leave a record of this with my genealogy. I will probably place more detail on that record then the list I have year.



Mary’s Census Years:


1950: New York, with parents

1960: Florida, with parents & 3 siblings

1970: Florida, single

1980: In Bolivia on Mission

1990: Arizona, single

2000: Arizona with spouse & children

2010: Arizona with spouse children & daughter in law

I have to admit I don't remember doing the census in 1970 & 1990.


Some interesting links: 1940 Census & Here





MySpace-Countdowns

More Questions than Answers

While doing some 1881 UK Census research yesterday to write a post about the kind of work my grandparents did I found some interesting information.  In the first imagine we see my great x2 grandfather William John, his wife Elizabeth and two of their children.   I saw this census a couple of weeks ago and didn't notice anything strange.  I never thought about the other kids and where they were. 

So yesterday I went to look at the census of the same year 1881, to see what kind of work my great grandfather did.  It is easier to see the imagine of the census on line then printed out, I searched for him instead of his father.   And this is when I found the imagine below.  You also need to read the line that is crossed out.

William K, Walter T & Herbert H, were on 17 Mealcheaper St, and they all had jobs. It even said the head and the wife were away from the home right on the census record. William John & Elizabeth Jane where on 32 Broad St, with Ernest & Frederick. It looks like the same town when I Google map it, walking directions and it’s only .2 mile from each other.   That is not a very far distance.

This is just page two that list the other two brothers and Walter T is my great grandfather.

I mean I have no real idea of what life was like in 1881 and I'm sure there were very good reasons as to why they lived apart.  I just don't know the reasons and I wish I knew.  It just blew me away but then again I’m coming from my time frame and my life experiences. I can tell you when I was alone at 16 with a sick mother and three younger brothers I was scared a lot and after she died it was even worst. My Dad was a fireman and he worked 24 on and 48 off, so I was the chief cook and bottle washer when he was gone.   I didn't like it but I did what had to be done for our family just as my father did what had to be done for the family.

 He had to work he had four kids at home the oldest 16 and the youngest was 6. 

 I also believe my ancestors did what had to do but it gave me many questions. 

Why??

Where is Agnes? She should be 13. Was she sent to be a servant? I don’t find her when I search for her by name, I don’t see her on the 1871 Census either. I just found an Agnes Jane that died in the 3rd quarter 1868, on the FreeBMD Index on Ancestry. I wonder if it is my Agnes Jane?  I have a birth year of 1868. The FreeBDM Index list her as born in the 2nd quarter of 1868.  So that must be why there is no Agnes on the Census.


William John was the manager of the coffee tavern on this census, maybe he didn’t have room for all the kids, maybe they didn’t want to lose the other apartment?


Leaving 3 boys 17, 16, & 14 alone? It was a different age and I’m sure they were working too hard to survive to have energy for rough housing or other teenage boy mischief.