Question of the Week: How do you incorporate census data into profiles?

Question

This week's question comes courtesy of Norm Lindquist. Thanks, Norm!

To expand on the above, when you encounter a census record for an individual or a family, what do you do with it? What bits of information do you look for, and what do you add to the profile?

Personally, I will add a profile for every person on the census listing, and I add a citation for that listing to every profile. I also try to glean information from that listing like marital status, occupation, and -- of course -- birth date and location.

I also like to look at the image when it's available to see if I recognize the names of neighbors. This can be really great for tracking down people you may have lost due to transcription errors. 

How about the rest of you??? Give us your creative uses of census records!

Comments

@Norm -- My apologies for the late reply to your post asking or examples. I hope that some of the information that others have posted here have helped.

I, unfortunately, haven't had a lot of time to work on my genealogy lately, and I'm not sure I can pull out good examples of the census data. I have this one where I've outlined timeline entries using census data. Here's another where I've created a timeline using census information among other records.

I'm not sure what you're looking for exactly. Can you give me some specifics?? 

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I use the citation from Family search, and sometimes, tho not always add the family listed in the FS Index. But I'm also extracting census because the FS index is sometimes wrong when it comes to my family name. So my job isn't to correct the enumerators spelling mistakes, altho sometimes I do, but to possibly correct the indexers mistakes. And make a few new ones of my own.

So far,   all 3 parts of Barnstable Space:1800_Barnstable_Barnstable_Massachusetts_Census_Part_1

Space:US_Census_Union_County_Arkansas_Master_Index   1830-1850  Brown Township, you'll find all inhabitants have a linked WT profile.  Others that I know or have identified are linked in too.  And those that are linked in also carry a link to the Space Page.

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Wow,

I realize that there is a lot of information on the census that I am not gathering.  I never thought of getting a street map out!  I always look at there occupations, education levels and any details they provide.  Thanks for providing more insight into what information is available on these documents.

Taylor

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...the left hand column (the long unbroken-one) beginning with the 1900 census often has the street name and then the next column may have the house number.  Another interesting thing to note is the value of a home in 1930 vs. the same home in 1940, it's often half the value.

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I also like checking the street view and the map. It has shown me that the lineman lived near the railroad tracks in 1920s Chicago; my father's house in 1940 is still there, looking much the same, I think; a family house in Oakland was lost to the freeways; another family member lived near Golden Gate Park in 1908. Zillow, or other real estate sites, can also add perspective: the professor's house near Stanford was about $50K in 1940, when it was new. Houses in that neighborhood, now run in the 3-5 million range.

Also, I noticed that my father's rent in 1940 was $22.50. In 1939, he made $1080, making his rent about 25% of his income.

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Michelle, if California and Florida are alike in how they took the land for the freeway, there could be an eminent domain court case, either in that county or at the federal district level.

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I do screen shots of the houses I get from Google maps and upload to the galleries on Ancestry.

For one relative, I found a family of the same name living next door, I still wonder if they are related - unfortunately, I don't know how to track down.

I have a very elusive relative I simply can't find before his first wedding in England, athough all births were to be registered by that time.

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The street map does add insight in a variety of ways: the railroad lineman lived near the rail yard; the professor's house was only a couple blocks from Stanford; that block in Oakland is now under the freeway. If the house is still there, Zillow.com can also enlighten: a couple doors down from the professor was a lawyer in a brand new house, valued at $50K, now worth 2 or 3 million.

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I would love to see a way to pair a census record to an individual so that we can see if two wiki profiles are linking to the same census record.

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Lance, one way to do that would be to transcribe the census and link the inhabitants to profiles.

This is what I have done for Union County, AR  If you look at that, in 1850 I have Brown Township done.  There are some in Franklin, El Dorado and Johnson (I think) Maybe Jackson also.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:US_Census_Union_County_Arkansas_Master_Index

Unless the powers that be who operate the great gadgets we get can find a way to bridge to FS (because its free), but then there is nothing to stop someone from using another site and linking from that census.

Answer 1

Just a word of caution about adding a profile for everyone on the census who live with the person you are searching -- not all people who appear to be children are in fact the children of the head of household.  I have an adopted great aunt who appears on the census to be a biological child.  I have another relative who is the child of the sister of the head of household, but someone had added the child's profile as the biological child of the head of household just because they lived in the same house.  Good intentions, but be careful.

Comments

Very true of the English 1841 census. After that relationships are recorded though not always correctly.

I frequently find that my gg grandmother has the wrong parents in online trees  She was living with her uncle on the day of the 1841 census ( Her father had died and her mother had remarried) but people don't check for supporting evidence.

The infuriating thing is that the error is perpetuated in the user submitted IGI on family search even though an LDS publication  written back in 1967 used this incorrect attribution as an example of what not to do.

Answer 2

I think the greatest asset of a Census return  is the listing of children because researching all of the children may lead you to discover one of their offspring has already accomplished the research you have yet to do!

Answer 3

View in profile here: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Carney-1431

I like to add census info like this below, in a table :

::{| border="0"
|-style="background: #f7f7ea;"
|1860 United States Census || Flag Spring, Campbell, || Kentucky <ref name="C60">"United States Census, 1860".   FamilySearch.org.   (Accessed 06 Apr 2017)</ref>
|-
| ''Name''         || ''Gender''   || ''Age''  || ''Birthplace''
|-  
|Henry Deputy    || M  || 44 || Virginia
|-
| '''Julia Deputy'''  || F || 33 || Kentucky
|-
| Henry Deputy  || M || 6 || Kentucky
|-
| David Deputy  || M ||  4 || Kentucky
|-
| Sallie B Deputy    || F || 2 || Kentucky
|-
| James Meaker  || M || 23 || Kentucky
|}

The reference shows under references like this:

"United States Census, 1860".   ''FamilySearch.org''.   (Accessed 06 Apr 2017)

I use the data that is indexed by the reference I am citing --  in this case FamilySearch, and iif would have been indexed as as Debuty I would use Debuty (instead of the real Name Deputy)

so if someone else searching familysearch can find it.

Comments

I like that! :)

Answer 4

One way I use a census found for a family is to make note of all the people listed in that household and their relationship to each other. I also make note of the address, career, birth locations, and other useful data. I have also found other families listed as neighbors on the census that turned out to be parents, siblings or even cousins of the family I was originally searching for. I also look to see who is missing on the census and then search to find a reason why they weren't listed.

On the 1910 census for the Litchfield Connecticut area I found my 2nd great grandmother living with one of her known sons and two boarders. She was listed as married but her husband was not found on that census. I happened to find him living with my great grandfather a town or so away. It always amazes me when I can find little clues that help me to piece together the story of my family.

Answer 5

One goal of using census records should be, and it is very important to me since so many of my family members do not transcribe accurately, is to correct errors in transcription AND in  the images on thee census records.

Answer 6

Pretty much the same as everyone else.  It's a snapshot in time.  Who was living in the home, ages, residence, etc.

One record was interesting.  It listed a male relative living with a ton of unrelated other people.  Puzzling at first. Then I noticed the name of the location - the city jail. Hahaha

Answer 7

Census is good for proof of residence,  it show the state of the family, and some times, a family can live in clusters, and you will see a whole family on a census, in law's and out law's, grandparents, It is good for creating a based in fact narrative, it is also I source. Pure and Simple for varifying facts. you type them up as a source you add the title footnote for your reffences then they apear there.

Answer 8

I use the following procedure: (I ordinarily use AncestryHertageQuest for censuses).

I locate the census:

I copy and paste the transcription including the source information into the profile.

I copy and paste the transcription URL into the profile.

I click on the View image, go to the image, note which image of total images in that batch, copy and paste the image URL into the profile, add image # of total # of images.  Using snipping tool, I take a picture of the relevant portion of the image, which (using Picasa and sometimes Word Perfect) I edit if and as necessary. I add accession info -- >"Accessed 28 May by [[Prickett-120 | Patricia Prickett Hickin]]" at the end of the citation.

Then I go back into the text ad edit it to make it more compact. I add the word "County" where necessary.

I show how it is indexed:  e.g. John Dough [sic., i.e., John Doe]

I put a heading  === 1850 census ===

I write a short introductory paragraph:

"John Doe appears in the 1850 federal census as a 40-year-old farmer with $3500 of real property living with his wife, Mary, and seven children (6 sons, 1 daughter) and next door to another family of Does (probably his brother and family).

I upload the image and add a link so that the viewer can see it full-size.

I copy the inside text for the image into the profile and set the size at 575px.

Here is an example.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Prickett-130.

Let me know if you have questions,

Pat

Comments

That is such a lot of work for ONE profile. It looks great, but so much work!!

I do the shortest thing possible when Making up a profile. I do write up the basics of a biography based on the details I find in the raw data, and I do paste in the citations,

This may not necessarily read like a story, but I don't write stories. I do bullet points. If I were to do my profiles the same way as you, I would creating a lot of repetition and I detest being repetitive!!

Below is one profile I just made up yesterday as an example. I use this person because he happened to be easily found in several US census records!!

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Mahre-10

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Yes, it is a lot of work, but I'm very detail-oriented!

Pat

Answer 9

I also look at the date on the census sheet. Many times there are additions to the family after the census was taken that year. and some times a family member dies or leaves just before the census.

Answer 10

While I usually use a census record as a first step for family relations, I never take the information to heart because I've found incorrect information so I'm always careful. But besides this a census can give you a lot of insight on a family depending on what year census.

Some years give you the exact (depending) month and year of birth, others how many years the couple was married (good for when you don't know when a couple was married). Another really useful one is the one census that listed how many children the woman had and how many are living, gives you an idea if you missed any children who died in between a year. My favorite part of a census is when you have other surprise relatives in the household, like the wife's parents which will tell you her maiden name if you didn't already know it!

For my ancestors I have a large spreadsheet with the census records I've found, are lost or still have yet to find and I'm also in a large project of transcribing all the information and making sense of it, especially when names are misspelled and completely wrong!

Answer 11

I use HeritageQuest  (Ancestry), which is available on my home computer free thru the local library. 

I enter a heading for each census: e.g. === 1850 census === in the profile.

First I copy their transcription of the census into the profile, including the citation, which I reformat somewhat.

Then I copy the Transcription URL:

Then I go to the image and copy the Image URL and add the image number, e.g. (17 of 93).

Then I add the date  accessed.

Then using snipping tool I copy the census image and upload it into the relevant profile, I click  on the line that says, "[click here to see the full-size original image]" and copy the resulting URL into the profile prefaced by these words '''''For a larger, clearer view of the census image below, click [https://www.wikitree.com/photo.php/b/bd/Prickett-122-1.pdf here].''''' 

Then I go to the "inside text" of the image and copy that into the profile, add the size, e.g., {{Image|file=Prickett-122-10.jpg
|caption=1860 Census return for William B.F. Prickett
|size=575px}} .

I add an introductory paragraph with the high points of the census, e.g. 

"=== 1860 census ===

: William appears in the 1860 census as a physician with $2500 in real and $200 In personal property living with his wife, Nancy, and four children (two sons, two daughters). Also in the household is a domestic named Mary Batten, 20 years old."

I add the census citation into the sources.

You can see what it looks like here:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Prickett-122. (In this case I've added a border to the census image.

I also link the census image to any other profile(s) in which I want it to appear, making such changes in the descriptive text as I deem appropriate.