Gene Notes

Some random and some not-so-random thoughts on family history.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

OCFRD* and the Census

 My pile of census covering 1850 to 1930 and including some New York State census from 1892 totaled about 169 before I started entering the information and sorting out the families. I've since added about 15 to that total and now stand at 47 to go. Every so often I come across a family with a simple name, like Reed for instance, that I have the 1900, 1910 and 1930 census for but they are totally MIA for 1920. Information from a county history indicates that the family had lived in that county all their lives. So where are they?

I've been running into this problem with various families and censuses.  I've done line-by-line searches for various families over the years and nothing. I've checked out the Family Search Pilot search for 1920 - they aren't there. I've searched Heritage Quest - I've searched Ancestry. Here are some of the reasons I think I can't find them:

1. They were out of town visiting relatives.
2. They used aliases.
3. They were picked up by a spaceship.
4. They moved in 1920 and managed to elude the census taker.

Or maybe even all four.

*Obsessive Compulsive Family Research Disorder
Copyright 2010, ACK for Gene Notes

3 comments:

  1. You are outta control. Ohhh, you are a Wild One afflicted with OCFRD. OK, you are not out of control, all normal behavior!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Maybe it was gypsies. We have a family history with those.

    ReplyDelete