Clues You Can Find in a Census Record!

Bonnie recently asked Olive Tree Genealogy this question about her ancestors:

I have recently found my Grandmother listed on the 1901 Ontario Census in the township of Wroxeter in Huron County.  She was born on August 5, 1899.  Her parents were George J Harris and Agnes J Harris born Jan 3, 1875 and Sept 21, 1877 respectively.  I was hoping to find where George and Agnes were born, and when their families emigrated and from where?  We know very little about the Harris side of the family so I was very excited to see this much!

Dear Bonnie - It is easy to overlook clues that are in a record. For instance ONE census record can often provide a great many new facts and clues to work on. 

FACTS FROM THE CENSUS IMAGE

First let me show you some important facts I think you may have overlooked on that 1901 census. A look at the online image shows that George was born in Ontario and his wife Agnes in the USA. Agnes gives her year of immigration from America to Canada as 1881.

This means you can search the Ontario birth registrations to find who George's parents were. You also know that it is quite likely George and Agnes were married in Ontario so I'd start looking at Ontario marriage records. This should give you both sets of parents' names for the bride and the groom.

Secondly, Wroxeter is not the township where the couple lived. It is a village in Howick Township, Huron County.  The census images clearly indicates Wroxeter Village and a quick search online reveals the township it is in.

Third,  did you note they are Presbyterian? That will be helpful to you in hunting for church and burial records.

Fourth, I am not convinced that George has the middle initial of "J". From the image it is difficult to tell if that is a "J" or "Jr" for Junior. Keep an open mind and try to find more proof that he has a middle name starting with "J" or that he is the son of a man named George.

CLUES FROM THE CENSUS IMAGE

I've mentioned some of the clues above but here is a list of clues you can work on from facts in that one census record

1. Search Presbyterian church records for baptisms, marriages and even deaths and burials.

 2. Look for Agnes and George marrying in Ontario, I'd guess sometime around 1897-1901.

3. Look for Agnes as a single woman in the 1881 and 1891 Ontario census records. Remember she says she came from USA to Canada in 1881.

4. Look for George and Agnes in 1911 and 1921 Ontario Census. (Hint: Look for them in Saskatchewan records too... try their 1906 and 1916 census)

MORE RESEARCH TIPS

Find the family in every census record possible. Compile a list of all their children then search for births and marriages of each child. Sometimes you will gather more clues and facts from a sibling's records that you are unable to find from your direct ancestor. For example birth registrations will usually give the mother's maiden name.

Once you have Agnes' maiden name, and hopefully her parents' names from a marriage record, search for her in the American census records before 1881 (1880 would be a good one!) This should give you the state she was born in.

Search for George's birth registration (search 1875 plus/minus 2 years to be safe) and then start looking for him in the 1881 and 1891 census of Ontario. (Hint: George was born in Turnbury, Huron County....)

WHERE TO FIND THE RECORDS

• Library & Archives Canada  Free census records, all years
• Ancestry.com and Ancestry.ca USA & Canada Census, Ontario Vital Statistics, Voters' Lists and more (subscription site)
• Ontario Birth Registrations Free but not  complete
• Ontario Marriage Registrations Free but not complete 
• Huron County Library has some excellent online resources (free)
• Huron County GenWeb may provide some help (free)
• Huron County Wiki on Family Search provides information as to where records are and what has survived(free)

More New Netherland (New York) Genealogy & History Records Online

Great news for those of us with New Netherland (present day New York) ancestors! The latest additions to a series of digitized publications are two volumes of correspondence: Volume XI, 1647–1653 and Volume XII, 1653–1658. 

These volumes collect the official correspondence of Petrus Stuyvesant, Director-General of New Netherland. They begin with his arrival in North America in 1647.

Correspondence 1647-1653

Correspondence-1654-1658

Procrastination, My Word For the Day and a Lesson Learned

My Western Digital My Book Live 2TB Personal Cloud Storage has not been co-operating with my Mac laptop for several months. I can access MyBookLive from my Windows main computer but not from my Mac. 

Yes I've been meaning to check into the problem and fix it..... because that is where I do my backups of important files. MyBookLive is like having your personal cloud computing system and it's really very cool. 

Of course I also have external cloud services. The two I use daily are Dropbox and Bitcasa. But I don't do a complete backup with them because I don't put private or confidential information in the cloud. 

So MyBookLive which I have password protected, is where my monthly backups live. Except I haven't done any monthly backups in, well, months! Lately my Mac has been overheating. It gets so hot I think I could fry eggs on it. This morning I booked an appointment at the nearest Genius Bar (which happens to be a 2 hour drive each way...)

Of course they strongly suggest you backup your computer before bringing it in. That's a wise precaution and I have a feeling my Mac will be staying for some in-depth work, so I do want to back it up. That was a problem so I got to work on fixing MyBookLive.

Well, long story short, that has not been easy nor completely successful. I've managed to fix it enough that I can manually transfer files from my Mac to MyBookLive. That's a tedious and very slow process!

But I cannot use Mac's built in Time Machine to transfer (which would get everything and be far less tedious) because my very poor Internet connection via satellite, will not connect to Western Digital to allow for firmware updates. And without that update, Time Machine can't connect to MyBookLive and start the transfer. 

If I'd begun solving this problem when it first arose I would not be in this mess. 

Procrastination. Yep that's my word for the day. I'm going to write 100 lines of "I will not procrastinate". Well, maybe I'll write it out tomorrow.....


Credits: Image by Stuart Miles on FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Creating a Wall of Ancestors Using Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner & Shutterfly

One of the things hubs and I like is having framed photos of ancestors hanging on our living room wall. We didn't inherit any large framed photos, so we have created our own.

We hang them on every wall, including up the stairs. Mixed in with these ancestor photos are oil paintings done by hubs' grandmother and great-grandmother, watercolours done by yours truly, antique paintings we buy, and framed family treasures.

Here's how we do it:

1. Take an ancestor photo - a small one from the late 1800s and early 1900s. Make sure it is in sharp focus. Scan it (I use my Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner for this) and have it enlarged to the size you want. I use Shutterfly but you can use any service to do this.

The photo here is of my great-grandmother on her wedding day in 1867. The original is 3x5 inches. The enlargement is 9x15 inches.

2. Have the enlargement placed in a mat and then frame it. You can do it yourself by purchasing frames and mats or you can have this done professionally.

I collect antique picture frames (you find them in antique stores and flea markets) then hubs repairs and repaints them if needed.

3. Hang your portraits and voila! You have a gorgeous Wall of Ancestors!  We also hang antique paintings mixed in with our ancestors for a change of pace.

We have enlarged an antique photo of my 2nd great-grandmother and her first born grandson which was  2x3" into a lovely framed portrait for the wall.

We also took a small photo of hub's grandfather and had a poster made for his man cave. The new poster enlargement is from Shutterfly's College Poster section. We chose 20x30 inches.

Then we bought a cheap black frame from Walmart and hubs used the insert in the frame which he reversed to create a nice white mat around the photo.

Hubs has it with his WW1 military collection and I think it looks amazing!

I also did one of my grandfather in his Kent Buff's military uniform as a poster for my son.

This hobby doesn't cost much and it not only provides us with a great deal of enjoyment it also safely preserves our ancestor photos! The originals are stored safely in archival sleeves and only the digital copies are framed and hung.

WW1 Photo Album Archive Page 8

Continuing on with my WW1 Photo Album archive here is the 8th page in my mother's cousin Doris Simpson's album.

 

This page was an exciting find for me because it holds photos of my grandparents and my mother as a baby.

The gal on the left is my grandmother's sister Lillian Simpson. I don't recognize the woman on the right.

I am not sure if this is Uncle Ern Simpson and his wife Cordie

The woman is Lillian Simpson again but the little girl is not known to me

This is my grandfather Fuller! I have very few photos of him as he died in 1941 before I was born.

 This photo almost makes me weep due to the loss of photo quality. It is my Grandfather and Grandmother Fuller with my aunt Lily (child in front) and being held is my mother Joan as a baby!. I am going to see if this photo can be restored professionally.

Specials on Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner

I love a good deal! And Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner has a nice one. 

You all know how much I love and use my Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner.


 f you want to read about some of the projects I've completed using it, just click on the links below for a few of my projects or click on Flip-Pal Projects to see all of them:

Instant Photo Border

1. Created instant photo borders and mat

Creating a Family Recipe Booklet

2. Scanned family recipes in a loved one's handwriting and created a treasured family recipe booklet

Scanning with 87 year old Auntie
3. Visited an older relative to scan their photos

Take Flip-Pal to a Museum

4. Taken Flip-Pal to a Museum and scanned documents

5. Been a Flip-Pal Couch Potato and scanned family photos while watching TV.

Documenting Civil War Photos

6. Documented a Civil War era photo collection

 7. Archived a collection of WW1 Photo Albums

 Use the coupon code: ten78 to take 10% off your entire order of $170 or more on Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner! This coupon expires on 11/15/2013, and can't be used in conjunction with ANY other offer (including sale items).

Hallowe'en Death Chart

Judy Russell of The Legal Genealogist came up with a fascinating chart of her ancestors causes of death and ages at death. It's so perfect for Hallowe'en that I decided to create my own.

It was actually a good exercise because I realized that I didn't have all the death registrations and that I hadn't really thought about their deaths. Was there a pattern? Did my ancestors have similar, perhaps genetic, health issues? Did they die young? Live to ripe old ages?

Lots of my female ancestors lived long lives, into their 80s and 90s. That's good news for me! With no further ado, here's my Hallowe'en Death Chart. You might want to create one too.

The upper case initials on each line are just to help me keep it straight as to whose information I was entering.

Problems With 1921 Census Indexing & How To Work Around Them

Yesterday saw me playing in the 1921 Canadian Census which is fully indexed and online at Ancestry.ca and   Ancestry.com 
 
I encountered a lot of bad transcribing which of course impacts on our ability to find our ancestors. From talking to other researchers yesterday I know many genealogists were finding errors that made it very challenging to find an ancestor. 

I'm still happy that the index is online and I'm really pleased that Ancestry has a way for researchers to add corrections. In fact I spent a lot of time yesterday adding my corrections to a lot of McGinnis and Vollick individuals in the 1921 census. 

Correcting Errors on the 1921 Census

To add your correction when you find a badly mangled ancestor's name, just look on the left side of the Ancestry page under the topic "Page Tools" . Under that topic title are  choices:

• Save record to someone in my tree
• Save record to my shoebox
• View/Add Alternate Info
• Report Issue
• View printer-friendly

You want View/Add Alternate Info. Then just follow instructions to add your correction. 

Some Errors I Found & How to Work Around Them

Let me give you a few examples and then walk you through how to get around this problem.

My grandmother Olive McGinnis was found as Clive. Not a big deal IF I only searched on her last name. Everyone in the family had some error in their name. The census images confirm that they were mistranscribed

Edgarton Anson Vollick was found as Edward W. Vollick. His son Harry Leslie Vollick, living with him, was indexed as Mary Lester Vollick. His daughter Lottie May was mistranscribed as Satter Mary. A huge error! 

WIldcards are your friend. But sometimes they don't work to overcome such things as "Harry" becoming "Mary" 

Or Edgarton becoming Edward. You must use 3 letters with the allowed wildcard search so you would have to be very creative and use Ed*r* to pick up both Edgarton and Edward but who would think to do that? 

My grandfather's brother, Henry McGinnis, was quite a challenge. It took me over an hour of fiddling and trying different searches to find him. He was badly mistranscribed as "Mary McGinne"   So even with my standard wildcard search of Mc*g*n*s for McGinnis he was not turning up. I confess it did not occur to me to leave off that last letter of "s"! 

I have another "trick" i use which is to just search under a first name and a date of birth or a location. But searching for "Henry" and his year of birth +/- 5 AND Guelph which is where he lived, still didn't pick him up (because he was indexed as Mary!)

I changed "Guelph" to "Wellington" in case he'd moved and I didn't know. No luck of course because no matter how broad I made my search I was still using Mc*G*n*s for the last name. (Note to self: Get even more creative in wildcard searches and use something like
Mc*G*n* or even Mc*G* when experiencing difficulty finding someone I know is there!)

I changed "Wellington" to "Ontario" since I knew for sure he lived in Ontario in 1921. But these standard changes to a broader search did not help. (Again because of the incorrect first name) 

Searching only under his last name and year of birth +/- 5 also did nothing because I used my standard Mc*G*n*s as the last name. 

I tried his wife Eunice - using wildcards - but no luck. I tried each of his children in turn. Nothing until I got to his youngest son Russell. Searching for "Rus*" with no last name and just his year of birth +/-5 was a Bingo moment. There they were - in Guelph, Wellington County as I knew they would be - but indexed as McGinne with Henry being Mary, his wife Eunice being Cunice and his children unrecognizable.... except for Russell. 

Some Tips For Searching Badly Transcribed Records

• Use wildcards for last name and first name
• Omit first name and search under last name and year of birth or location
• Search just by last name
• Broaden your search by leaving out specific location (start with a city/town then broaden that to a township then a county then broaden even further if necessary to the province)
• Search for someone else in the family - a child or a spouse
• Think outside the box - for example an "S" might be mistaken for an "L" So search for "Lally" instead of "Sally" . Maybe an "H" was mistranscribed as an "M" or some other letter so try various combinations
• Don't get stuck on being absolutely positive that Grandpa Jim lived in a specific location. Maybe for that one year he was working and living elsewhere 
• Add your correction when you find an incorrect entry! This helps other researchers and descendant. Ooops I neglected to add that you need to check the image first as you need to be sure you are correcting the transcription and not the image. Thanks to Audrey C. for the reminder! 

What's Next?

I still haven't found my great grandmother Harriet (Hattie) McGinnis. I know she lived in Guelph. I know when she was born (1847). I've followed my own tips and still she hasn't popped up. I even tried searching under her maiden name of King in case she used that. Nada.

I tried lots of variations of her surname and even searched just under her first name but still nothing. 

So today I am going to search each of her children in turn to see if she was living with a married daughter and perhaps written incorrectly under their married surname. I'm also going to try Mattie as a first name in case the "H" was mistaken for an "M"

I'm also going to reverse her first name and surname, just in case.... Wish me luck!

Great News - 1921 Canadian Census INDEX Online!

Great news! The 1921 Canadian Census is fully indexed and online at Ancestry.ca and   Ancestry.com 

I've already spent a half hour finding family and adding corrections to the indexing. For example my grandmother Olive McGinnis is mistranscribed as "Clive". My father and uncles' names are also slightly mangled.

But I'm just happy the index is here! I was invited to the big launch party in Toronto today being put on by Ancestry.ca but sadly cannot attend. It would have been fun and interesting to hear the speakers they are providing.

Enjoy searching for your Canadian ancestors in the 1921 Census on Ancestry.com and Ancestry.ca

Thinking about Ancestors Today

I have been thinking about family and the ones who are gone. This is one of my favourite photos of my mother (on the right) and her sister. It was taken around 1918 in Guelph Ontario.

It would be great if I got it restored to get rid of the black photo holders so that will be my next step. Do you have a favourite photo of an ancestor that you keep tucked in a drawer? This one is going in my Shutterfly book about my family. I have quite a few from this time period and really need to get them organized and create copies.

UPDATE!! Found WW2 Letter from American Soldier Looking for Home

Image captured from wifr.com video

A letter from a WW2 soldier was found in the street and the finder is looking for any family member so he can return the letter.

The letter was written in December 1944 by Sgt Neal K. Moore while he was in England and it is addressed to Miss Bessie Moore of Galena Park Texas. 

So did a bit of sleuthing and found the burial of Sgt. Moore in Oakwood Cemetery, Denison, Grayson County Texas. The inscription reads:

MOORE  NEAL  K                   FEB 26,1914     JAN 12,1945
  SERGEANT, US  ARMY, WW II.  KILLED  IN  BELGIUM, BATTLE  OF  THE  BULGE
[FN1]

Also found on FindAGrave with inscription Veteran of World War II. Sergeant - United States Army. Killed in action - Battle of the Bulge. Serial No. 38043828 Note that the serial number is identical to the serial number on the return address of his envelope [FN2]

In the 1940 census for Denison Texas Neal is found as a single man living with his sister, the widow Georgia Armstrong, at 609 East Munson Street. He works in a cheese factory.

An application in 1947 for a military stone for Neal's grave was submitted by Ernest Moore living in Galena Park Texas. [FN3] I have no doubt he is related, if not to Neal, to Bessie the person Neal wrote to.  

I plan to continue hunting for more details on Neal and on Bessie the woman he wrote to. My hope is that my wonderful readers will jump in and put on their genealogy sleuthing hats!

Oct. 30th : Exciting Update!!

This was posted on Olive Tree Genealogy Facebook page by Debbie DeVore: 

Thanks you guys! Thanks to folks from your group we found out about this last night. My mom is the closest living relative to Neal and Bessie and we are now in contact with the gentleman who found the letter and will be seeing it soon! My mom, Donna Moore DeVore, is 76 and this is the most exciting thing to happen for her in a long while. She had only recently posted info on Neal on her ancestry page. Too cool! 


[FN1] http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~txgrayso/ceme-oakwood5.html 
[FN2] http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=moore&GSfn=neal&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSob=n&GRid=8622560&df=all&
[FN3] Ancestry.com

Flash - Another Winner of a Children's Game from Blue-Orange

Another winner of a game that my grandchildren loved! FLASH from Blue-Orange is a game for ages 7 to adult. It's a fast paced dice game for 2 to 6 players. My grandchildren ages 6 to 11 played. The age limits given are accurate as the 6 year old (he just turned 6 last month) had some trouble. 

There are different challenges to meet. Sometimes each player tries to get 6 of a kind, sometimes it is 3 pairs or other variations of the dice tosses. Players toss their dice, quickly decide which are "keepers" and which need to be thrown again to complete the challenge, then toss again. 

The 6 year old's siblings ended up letting him stick with trying to get 6 of a kind because he had trouble understanding the concept of 3 pairs and the more difficult sets. He also had a little trouble keeping up with the fast pace of the game and making decisions as to which dice to keep and which to throw again. But he enjoyed playing!

His older siblings had no trouble at all. They loved the game although they did need a little help from me to understand the rules. But that's good because the point of these games (for me) is to bond with them and spend some fun quality time together. 

I use these games as a opportunity to talk about history and our ancestors. I say things like "Do you think our ancestors played games like this?" and then we talk about what a child might get for Christmas in the 1800s or what games Great-Grandpa or Grandma McGinnis had to play with.

This game won the following awards and I can see why:

• Dr. Toy Best Vacation Products
• Parents’ Choice Award
• Tillywig Toy Award
• The National Parenting Center Award

Disclaimer: I was given a free game to review but I was not told what to say. The opinions here in my blog post are my own.

Irish Passengers in J & J Cooke Shipping Agents Records 1847-1871

Those of us with Irish ancestors know how difficult and challenging it can be to find records. One set of records that is often overlooked is the J & J Cooke Shipping Agents Records. 

Ships passenger lists to Canada did not have to be kept before 1865 and the J J Cooke Shipping Agent records are a substitute that is often overlooked. It also includes ports of arrival in America

These Irish passenger lists from shipping records can be found in  Passenger Books of J & J Cooke, Shipping Agents. Sailings from Londonderry to Philadelphia Pennsylvania, Quebec, St. John New Brunswick & New Orleans Louisiana, 1847-1871

This database of Irish ships passenger lists include 27 ships to St. John New Brunswick, 30 to Pennsylvania, 23 to Quebec and 5 to New Orleans, Louisiana. If your Irish ancestor left Ireland for N. America between 1847 and 1871 you won't want to overlook these lists of passengers.

Find Out What Your DNA Says About You - Specials at 23andMe

I'm definitely taking advantage of this special and buying a few DNA kits for Christmas presents for family members! 

We'd like to have hubs' mom and dad tested and I'd like to convince my 102 year old Uncle on my mother's side to do a little spitting! 

In any case I plan on buying 4 kits for Christmas. The more family members I can get to test, the more accurate results are and the more i can find out about our family heritage.

Here's the link to get your DNA kits at 23andMe.com