Census-takers are only human

Do you suspect your ancestor was snatched by aliens in flying saucers when a U.S. census after 1840 was taken? There are several reasons why your relative may be missing from the official record other than interplanetary kidnapping. The most obvious occurs if a family was moving from town, county, state, or even street to another location. Moving at just the wrong moment could easily prevent a family or individual from being enumerated.

If your family lived in one place for generations there are other reasons why they might be among the missing.

The first is the date when the census was taken. Each census had a closing date when the census-takers had to complete their work. The census-takers visited all homes, listing everyone living in the household at the time of their visit. Any away working or born after the census was taken won’t be found in the household census for that year.

The second reason for a missing ancestor occurred if he or she was simply forgotten by the informant. A census-taker tried to record every household but if a family wasn’t home when he called the usual practice was to go to the nearest neighbor and ask someone there to provide details about the absent family. This led to best guesses on ages, names, and other data and people got missed. Problems also arose if the only one home was a child or if the family spoke little or no English.

The third possibility for error occurred when the census-taker transcribed his field notes onto the official forms. Errors creep into any transcription unless the transcriber is extremely careful. Mistakes such as skipping a person, duplicating a given name, or getting the age wrong can and do occur in all censuses.

Finally, if you are unsuccessfully searching for an ancestor in an online census it is possible that the name has been misread by indexers. This isn’t always their fault as the penmanship can be tricky to read or the ink badly faded over the decades.

Census-takers supplied their own ink so there was an incentive to “water” it down leading to some records being almost unreadable today. Another possibility is that the indexer is unfamiliar with the area being indexed and the names found there or may not have much English or experience.

Some bad indexing in my own family include my husband’s cousin Phillip indexed as Chillip, my third great-grandfather Seth is Setl, and some of my simple English surnames totally unrecognizable. One lesson to remember is that when using an online index stretch your imagination and search under every variation of the names you’re seeking.

For any of the above reasons or others you may never locate your ancestor is a census. If he or she lived in a small town such as Atkinson you can search line by line to try to locate him.

However, if the ancestor lived in a large city such as Boston or New York I recommend you try other sources such as city directories.

Nancy Battick is a Dover-Foxcroft native who has researched genealogy for over 30 years. She is past president of the Maine Genealogical Society, author of several genealogical articles and co-transcribed the Vital Records of Dover-Foxcroft. Nancy holds a MA in History from UM and lives in DF with her husband, Jack, another avid genealogist. You can contact Nancy at nbattick@roadrunner.com.