Gene Notes

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

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Ancestry is Freaking Me Out

I can't say enough about how bad the indexing is at Ancestry. In searching the 1940 Michigan census, I came across many indexing errors, such as Grimmet for Simmet. My grandfather is MIA in 1940, which I sort of expected. He more or less abandoned my mother, aunt and uncle. But I still would have liked to have found him. Also not found is his soon-to-be third wife. By this time, Ruth Bowsher Smeaton Hessling Stanley Stanley Moore should have been divorced by hubby Thomas Lloyd Moore, who committed bigamy when he married Ruth. Her maiden names were Bowsher AND Smeaton, since she was adopted by the Smeaton family when she was an infant.

Then there is the 1940 Kentucky Census. I searched for Andrew Bowman till I was blue in the face. You know, if the name is spelled completely wrong, Soundex is useless. Which is why I didn't find him until I searched for him by first name in Fayette county. There he was indexed as Baurman. 



Copyright 2010-2012, ACK for Gene Notes

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