A Woman Named Anarchy?

I spent several hours Tuesday researching at the Calvin M. McClung Collection in Knoxville. I followed my plan to use published abstracts for Bedford County, Tennessee to help me trace my Mosely and related lines forward and to find things missing from my ancestral line research.

As I checked the index of a volume, I came across an unusual name. Turning to the page, I found the entry summarized thusly:

Marriage Volume A, page 438
Couple: Clifton Neill and Anarchy Moseley
Security: B. M. Tillman
Marriage Date: 29 July 1866¹

As I read the entry, I wondered who would name a child Anarchy. This record appears in the section for colored marriages so I assume Anarchy recently enjoyed her first taste of freedom from slavery. Another section in Volume A records marriages of free persons of color. Of course, by 1866, former slaves were free. I located the marriage record's image at Ancestry to verify the abstract's information.²

The mulatto couple resided in Bedford County's fourth district in 1870 with ten-year-old Jim. Clifton was enumerated as Cliff Neil and Anarchy was enumerated as Anica. Both were age forty-five.³ It is unknown if Jim was the natural son of both Cliff and Anica or if only one "parent" belonged to him. Many African-Americans married in the years following the Civil War, and Bedford County's marriage register is filled with multiple entries on each day, with many of the grooms serving as securities for another groom marrying on the same day.⁴

I was unable to locate the family in 1880. Is the woman's name Anarchy as the marriage record suggests or Anica as the 1870 census suggests? Without further evidence I may never know. Perhaps I'll run across a record with additional evidence for the name. I certainly hope it turns out to be Anica.

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1 Helen C. Marsh and Timothy R. Marsh, Official Marriages of Bedford County, Tennessee (Greenville, South Carolina: Southern Historical Press, 1996), volume 1, page 66.^↩
2 "Tennessee, Marriage Records, 1780-2002," database with images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 10 July 2018), Clifton Neill to Anarchy Moseley, 29 July 1866, Bedford County; citing marriages available at Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville.^↩
3 1870 U.S. Federal Census, Bedford County, Tennessee, population schedule, 4th District, Shelbyville post office, page 177B (stamped), page 22 (written), dwelling and family 140, lines 27-29, Cliff Neil household; digital image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 10 July 2018); citing National Archives microfilm publication M593, roll 1514.^↩
4 Marsh and Marsh, Official Marriages of Bedford County, Tennessee, pages 51-77/^↩

Mystery Occupation

1900 U.S. Federal Census, Franklin County, Kentucky, population schedule, Frankfort, Ward 1, SD 7, ED 66, p. 27A (stamped & written), dwelling 465, family 534, line 10, John R. Dean; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : 1 Nov 2015); citing NARA microfilm publication T623, roll 521.

Last night I came across this record. I've consulted with several other genealogists and posted a link on my personal page hoping someone could determine the occuption of this young man.

I know that John R. Dean's uncle, Milton, was a huckster. Milton is listed as a grocery merchant in this 1900 census,¹ but in later censuses, he is called a huckster.² My best guess at this point is that he was driving for his uncle and the enumerator could not spell huckstery. However, I'm not sold on my best guess and would welcome other opinions on this.

For those who do not have a subscription to Ancestry.com, the census may be found at FamilySearch as well.

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<sup>1. 1900 U.S. Federal Census, Franklin County, Kentucky, population schedule, Frankfort Ward 3, SD 7, ED 68, p. 77 (stamped), sheet 23B (written), dwelling 448, family 572, line 85, Milton Dean; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : 22 Jul 2015); citing NARA microfilm publication T623, roll 521.↩
2. 1910 U.S. Federal Census, Jefferson County, Kentucky, population schedule, Louisville Ward 1, SD 5, ED 39, p. 233 (stamped), sheet 5B (written), dwelling 90, family 115, 1652 Story Avenue, line 72, Milton Dean; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : 22 Jul 2015); citing NARA microfilm publication T624, roll 483; 1920 U.S. Federal Census, Jefferson County, Kentucky, population schedules, Louisville, Ward 12, SD 5, ED 224, p. 83 (stamped), sheet 20B (written), dwelling 399, family 431, line 64, 2100 W Avenue, Milton Dean; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : 23 Jul 2015); citing NARA microfilm publication T624, roll 582; 1930 U.S. Federal Census, Jefferson County, Kentucky, population schedule, Louisville, 10th Ward, SD 5, ED 151, p. 244 (stamped), sheet 16B (written), dwelling 263, family 284, line 68, 2100 Gaulbert Ave., Milton Dean; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : 24 Jul 2015); citing NARA microfilm publication T626, roll 75.↩</sup>

SNGF: The 1940 Census

I'm looking forward to the 1940 census' arrival as are most genealogists and family historians. I'm so glad it's only a year away. I remember the wait for the 1930 census seemed endless. I'm sure there are those who believe the wait for this one is endless as well. I've wanted it a few times when working on something for a client, but I've rarely needed it for my own research as I have a plethora of resources for family members who were alive in that period.

Which family members were alive then? Both of my parents were alive at that time. They weren't married yet. Both were in Monroe County, Mississippi, although they did not live all that near one another. Their parents were alive at that time. All of these were living in Monroe County as well. Dad's brother was younger than he was and was still at home. Mom's sister Daisy was probably in college at East Mississippi Junior College in Scooba, although she may have been teaching at Bigbee by then. (I guess I need to locate that school program from Bigbee Schools that was done while she was teaching there to check the date on it.) I feel fairly sure that she had not begun her studies at Mississippi State College for Women by the spring of 1940. Mom's brother "Bud" may have been in the NYA or CCC program in the Tupelo area by that time or he may have already gone to Whitehaven (now part of Memphis) to an aeronautics school. I don't have the exact dates of his participation in each of these.

Now for my paternal grandfather's siblings: He was one of 12 children. His sister Ila, the eldest of the 12, was married and living in Osceola, Mississippi Co., Arkansas. They were already there by 1930, and that is where she and her husband died in the 1970s. I am not sure when his sister Carrie moved to the Mobile, Alabama area, but if she and her husband are not still in Monroe County in 1940, I will check Mobile County for them. I do know they were in the Mobile area by the early 1950s. I'm also not sure when his sister Virgie moved from Monroe County (where she is in 1930) to the Tuscaloosa, Alabama area (where they are in the early 1950s), but I will check Tuscaloosa County if they aren't in Monroe. I suspect that his brother Earlie had moved on from Memphis to Arkansas by 1940. I'm not sure exactly where he would be, but I know the most probable ones. The remainder of my paternal grandfather's siblings should all be in Monroe County, Mississippi.

My paternal grandmother's siblings: This could get complicated. She was one of 15 in the blended family. She had 5 step-siblings which I will not include here. She had 5 half-siblings. She had 4 other full siblings. Three of her full siblings were deceased by 1940. Her sister Norma was living in Memphis in 1930. I have no idea if she was still there are had moved elsewhere. All of her half-siblings were in Monroe County, Mississippi.

My maternal grandfather's siblings: Two of his siblings were deceased. His brother Lee will probably be in either Oktibbeha or Noxubee County, Mississippi. His sister Emma was in Telfair County, Georgia in 1930. She may be in Glynn County, Georgia or she may have moved back to Monroe County, Mississippi (or she might still be in Telfair County). His sister Marie should be in Monroe County, Mississippi. His sister Bess is probably in Clay County, Mississippi.

My maternal grandmother's siblings: Seven of her siblings had died before 1940. Her sister Mattie was in Lamar County, Alabama then. (A couple of years later she would be taken to Bryce Hospital in Tuscaloosa to spend the rest of her days. That's another story for another day!) Her brother Charlie was in Monroe County.

My great-grandmother Bennie Duke Thornton was alive in Monroe County, Mississippi. What is even more surprising is that all four of her siblings were also still alive. I believe her brother Jim will be found in Hot Springs, Arkansas at the time of the 1940 census. He later returned to Monroe County, Mississippi. I believe her sister Myrtis will be in Itawamba County, Mississippi at that time, although Monroe County is a possibility as well.

My great-grandmother Jennie Phillips Fowlkes Howell was also alive in Monroe County, Mississippi. She had no known siblings.

This concludes a rather lengthy post for "Saturday Night Genealogy Fun."

A Teachable Moment

One of our student workers who was working in Interlibrary Loan came to me to ask for assistance locating an "article" she needed to retrieve. As I looked at the request, I noticed that the requesting library wanted to borrow 4 microfilmed rolls of the 1850 slave schedules. I told her that they were really wanting to borrow the microfilm (which we do not loan via ILL). She showed that the library had filled in the article line with "slave schedules." I decided to show her what the slave schedules were. I popped up the 1850 Jefferson County, Tennessee slave schedule and showed her how it listed the slave owners and the demographics for each slave. I told her that it did not name the slaves -- just the owners. It really caught her interest, and she began to ask questions. I told her that she could often find the names of the slaves in deeds and in probate records. She was amazed that these records still existed. I'm glad I took the time to show her what had been requested. I hope it may have sparked an interest in genealogical research.

Odds & Ends

About a week and a half ago as I was working on FGS stuff during fall break, my computer suddenly "turned off." It appeared to be a power issue, and when I couldn't get it to come back on after about an hour, I decided that I'd better try to go to Knoxville and get a new power cord. I wasn't sure it was the power cord, and I certainly had no previous symptoms to indicate that I'd had an issue with it. When I got to Best Buy, I decided to go to the Geek Squad counter just to get them to check to see if another power cord would work before I purchased a new one. The "geek" looked and said he was pretty sure that it was the jack into which the cord plugs that was the issue. He tested my cord and determined that nothing was wrong with it. He was pretty sure that the jack could be sauntered and recommended someone at Shields Electronics to do it. I had just enough time to get it to Shields before they closed for the day. I was given an estimate of two days because of computers ahead of mine with the same issue. When the tech there got to it, he discovered the jack was actually split in two and would need to be replaced. The replacement wouldn't arrive (due to the weekend) until the following week, but he thought it would arrive Monday and that he would be done by Tuesday. When he got the jack replaced, the computer still wouldn't power up so we realized that the jack was probably not the big issue (although it did need to be replaced) and that the motherboard was the problem. No warning -- just gone. I had him take out the hard drive and put it in a case so I could get to everything easily. I also had an online backup of all my files. I'm thankful for that. I had to use an old computer that has a tendency to overheat as a backup while I was without my usual machine. I also was very grateful for my iPhone which was my most reliable computer at the time! I now have a new computer with Windows 7. I've managed to get most of my software reinstalled on the new computer. I am still trying to locate my download of Paint Shop Pro's latest version's installer file. I know that I put that on either a CD or a USB drive, but I can't find it at the moment. In the meantime, I'm trying some of the free graphics editing programs out there. I downloaded Gimp, Photoscape, and Picasa. I'll see how I like those. I really don't want to pay another $70 if I can't locate the installer file. I have my product code!

Now . . . there were some interesting developments while I did not have a reliable computer to use. Many of you know that I enjoy reading. I've been pondering a Kindle purchase for some time. Sony has improved its ebook reader in the last few months, but Barnes & Noble has just come out with the Nook also. I think all of these are interesting. Right now, I've got an ebook reader called Stanza that is an iPhone application. I'm able to download public domain books with it for free. I have also learned that there is a Kindle application for iPhone which is very intriguing. One of these days, I'm sure I'll bite the bullet and get one, but since I had to purchase a new computer 1.5 years before the planned replacement, I simply can't afford one right now.

Another interesting development is the announcement of Footnote.com's interactive census. How many times have those of us researching on Ancestry.com wished that we had a similar feature rather than just the "corrections" feature? At the same time I'm excited about the interactivity of this, I'm also concerned that we'll end up with a lot of problems by persons who jump to erroneous conclusions. These would be the same types of errors that many online trees have. I specifically think back to a case in which most of the data on my Harris family was incorrect in Ancestral File. One brother had lived apart from the rest of the family and really had not kept in touch with his brothers and sisters who had moved on from the family's earlier residence (where he remained). The person who had submitted information was from this brother's line. The erroneous conclusions were reached because the person was searching for full names instead of initials which had been used by the enumerator for the census in which wrong conclusions had been made. While I realize that we will be able to interact and correct those errors, the fact that they may be there before we realize that they are there concerns me. I just don't go back and review online censuses that often. I tend to print a copy for my personal records which is filed for future consultations. If I'm not at home, I may look at an online census using the citation in my database. You also have to realize that until the last few years, most of my census research was done on microfilm. I have tons of print-outs which predate Ancestry.com and HeritageQuest census records. I even still have those 1880 CDs that the LDS issued. About the only time I've used those in the last few years though has been to consult an image which was hard to read in the other sources.

I need to get back to work. I'm working on FGS stuff and on a presentation I'm making in North Carolina next weekend. I also need to write a blog post for the carnival later today. I haven't participated in a long time, and I need to get back on track!

Alabama State Census at Ancestry

I learned that the Alabama State Census was now available for searching at Ancestry.com for the years 1820-1866. I decided that I would search for my ancestor James M. Thornton. I searched for the surname Thornton in Fayette County. All of my hits were from the year 1866 although the collection description states that 1820, 1850, 1855, and 1866 are available. I found James in township 14, range 10 west in Fayette County. There were 2 males under 10 (William Walter and John Sherman) and one male over 20 (James) and 1 female under 10 (Alice) and one over 20 (second wife Nancy). All of the children were from the second marriage. [The source information provided by Ancestry is: Ancestry.com. Alabama State Census, 1820-1866 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2009. Original data: Alabama State Census, 1820, 1850, 1855 and 1866. Montgomery, Alabama: Alabama Department of Archives & History. Rolls M2004.0008-M2004.0012, M2004.0036-M2004.0050, and M2008.0124. His record was on page 5 or image 3 for Fayette County. There was no individual roll number given for the Fayette County images. That's going to make it difficult to cite Mills' style if it cannot be found on the ADAH site.]

I'm going to have to spend a little more time with it to locate the household in which James' son by his first wife was residing. He was reared by his maternal grandparents, Ashley and Celia Aldridge. We know that Ashley was living in 1860 but deceased by 1870. Celia was still living in 1870. I have been unable to locate either of them in the 1866 variation, but if, after browsing the township in which they resided (and it's too late to tackle that job tonight), I don't find Ashley under a misspelled name (and do find Celia), then I can narrow down his date of death a bit more!

Wasn't it nice of Ancestry.com to give me some Saturday night genealogy fun? And that after an afternoon of research at the North Carolina State Library & Archives!

By the way, late this afternoon there was a really horrible storm that popped in and out of downtown Raleigh. It was so quick that if it had not made such a "commotion" that I might not have known it occurred at all. However, I got to watch orange and white construction barriers that were being used to block off a nearby street flying through the air. They didn't fly far -- but they did fly a bit after being lifted off the ground. There was a lot of paper flying high in the air as well. (I'm glad they weren't the copies I made earlier!)

Dear Mr. 1830 Census Enumerator:

I see that they did not teach you how to do your sums in Alabama. 1+1+1+1+1+1 under the free whites category is equal to 6 persons. 2+1+2+2 under slaves is equal to 7 persons. 6+7=13 not 18 as you somehow calculated.

You obviously need this wonderful invention that we have invented since you first enumerated the persons in your area to calculate your totals. It is called a spreadsheet program. You can choose from several. There is Microsoft Excel, Corel Quattro Pro, Open Office Calc, Lotus 1-2-3, and even Google Docs. If you put in the correct formula, it is very easy to calculate the totals so that you are not off by 5 persons!

Sincerely yours,

Someone in the 21st century who is using your data

Thoughts on Census Occupations

If you've ever looked at census records from Southern states, you know that the majority of the persons enumerated have a single occupation that was listed variously as "Farmer," "Farm laborer," "Farm hand," "Works on farm," etc. Occasionally on a big plantation, you'll run across "Overseer" but you know that person also worked on the farm.

Today as I was transcribing 1870 Massachusetts census records in the town of Plymouth, I was reminded of how varied occupations were in the north. I did have one farmer and one farm laborer on that page, but I had several mariners. (I wondered if the oldest one was the famed "ancient mariner," although I knew Coleridge was an English author and that his mariner predated this one. However, I did wonder if others in the town associated the poem with this man.) There was one person who was listed as working for the "shoe man." I don't know if this meant he sold shoes or worked in shoe repair or both. It was an interesting occupations though. The Superintendent of Schools was also on this page. It was interesting that this man had been born in Jolly Old England rather than in the states. One man worked in an iron foundry. Most of the women were listed as keeping houses. Most of the older children were "attending school" while the younger ones were "at home." A few young ladies had "no occupation." My favorite occupation on that first page was "paper box maker."

On the next page I indexed, I found a brick mason, an engineer, a bookkeeper, a rope manufacturer (I'll bet those mariners visited his business quite a bit), a locomotive engineer, a huckster (I'm picturing Mr. Haney from Green Acres in a much earlier incarnation), and two farm laborers and two farmers. Interestingly, the first laborer was an African-American--the first black family I'd encountered in indexing Plymouth. (This family, however, was born in Massachusetts rather than the South.)

In nearby Wauham Wareham, my next page yielded a couple of wharf workers (one of whom was a black man born in North Carolina; he was probably a former slave who migrated north after being freed), a mariner, several Irish iron works employees, and a stevedore (someone who unloaded and loaded the ships). There was actually what was likely a boarding house full of Irish workers for the iron works on this page!

One can actually learn a lot about a community by paying attention to the various occupations enumerated on a census. These communities definitely had occupations in keeping with their waterfront locations. The presence of a locomotive engineer means that the railroads were becoming an important means of getting goods from the shipyards to the outlying areas and the rest of the country.

My next batch is taking me to a different part of Massachusetts so I'll end my thoughts for now. I'm sure that I'll be able to tell as much about this next community as I was the others (and even those Southern communities where farming was the driving force).

Okay - I can't resist one more occupation that I ran across later because I'd never seen it listed as an occupation before (especially for 1870)--trance medium. I did find this person listed in the 1900 census as a "lecturer."

Mail

You just never know what you are going to find when you go out to your mailbox. I had 4 pieces of mail today. One was one of those credit card offers. Another was an offer for a home equity line of credit. One was Southern Living's latest issue. The last piece of mail was the most exciting though. It was from the U.S. Department of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration. Okay - it was from the U.S. Census Bureau. It seems that my household (The letter made sure it let me know that it wasn't me individually but my address) has been randomly chosen to complete one of those American Community Surveys. The survey should arrive soon. I actually had one of the long forms in 2000 although I was living at a different address then. Since Hamblen County is roughly the size of Greene County (Hamblen is slightly smaller) and Greene County's sample rate is posted, I can assume that I'm one of no more than 644 households selected in our county to take the survey. This, of course, is any genealogist's dream--to be chosen to participate in these surveys which, if kept and made available in 72 years, will be useful to future generations of family historians! Now . . . I have another piece of mail to look forward to receiving!

Enumerate Me Challenge

I saw this challenge at Randy's. I'll confess that because "Lori" is a fairly recent name that I'd never thought to look for it in the census; however, I hit the comprehensive search button at Ancestry.com to see what I could find with "Lori Thornton." There were 2 hits for "Lori Thornton" in the 1920 census, but since one of them was "Ella Lori Thornton" and that is definitely not me, I decided to stick to the only one that was just "Lori Thornton." There was a 6-year-old Lori Thornton living in Riverside, California with parents Joseph E. and Florence Thornton. (Of course, the parents' names are wrong for me.) This Lori's father was born in West Virginia and the mother in Tennessee. I have no known West Virginia ancestry on my Thornton line. Those were the only hits on census records for my name. I am surprised to find any at all.

Musings on the Census

Tonight I was transcribing a little bit of the 1870 Craighead County, Arkansas census for FamilySearchIndexing.org. I came across two items that gave me a chuckle. The first was a female who was born in the state of Tennessee whose name was Alabama. Obviously they didn't play football back then because no loving parent in Tennessee would have named their daughter Alabama if that rivalry had been in existence back then! The second was an occupation. As you know, relationships were generally not stated on censuses before 1880. There was one woman whose occupation was listed as "aged mother." I wonder what were the details of her "job description" as there were two servants in the household. She was only 66. I know life expectancy was shorter then, but if we called a 66-year-old woman "aged" nowadays we might be in "hot water."

2010 Census at Risk

There are problems with the 2010 census.

The 2010 Census is at serious risk of massive cost increases and delays caused by problems with a contract to develop handheld computers that the Census Bureau plans to use to collect data.

Later in the article is this line:

"So serious is the crisis that if it is not dealt with immediately, it could threaten the integrity of the 2010 count," said Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., in his opening statement at the hearing. "We now find ourselves facing a situation in which we might have to revert to conducting the census entirely by paper -- no differently than it was done in the 19th century."

I sincerely hope we don't revert to early 19th century censuses. Can you imagine having only counts of the number of people within certain age groups by sex? As a researcher, I'd prefer the early 20th century model if we have to go back to written censuses. Instead of check-marks for radios, they could have check-marks for Blu-Ray DVDs, iPhones, or iPods.

Mortality Schedules

I wish that all my ancestors had the forethought to die in a year where their death would be recorded in a mortality schedule. I was fortunate to have a couple who were kind to provide me with their cause of death. Barbara Yoder Lantz died of consumption in 1870. John Hester died in 1879 of erisypelas. I really began thinking of the mortality schedules with the onset of the flu epidemic. I knew that I had seen influenza listed as a cause of death among them. The CDC's map for this week (dated February 9) shows widespread outbreaks in all but 6 states. Five of those other states (Oregon, Utah, Missouri, Rhode Island, and Maine) show regional outbreaks. Florida shows local outbreaks. Schools here in East Tennessee have been cancelling classes because of illness. I heard that it was so bad that the substitute teachers were calling substitutes before some of the districts closed.

I decided to explore a few of the transcribed schedules available online to see what causes were recorded.

In the 1850 mortality schedule for Potter County, Pennsylvania, we see the usual entries for dysentery, "tyfus" fever, croup, child birth, dropsy, consumption, various types of influenza, etc., but we also see some rather interesting causes of death. Nine month old Mary Ellis died from "eating caterpillars." Sarah A. Hitchcock died because she "choked on a bean." Two year old Mary Lawton "swallowed a brass button" and apparently was sick for 60 days from her accident before dying. There is also an unfortunate drowning of two year old Lorinda Nichols recorded.

Scarlet fever appears to have ravaged the population of Grayson County, Virginia according to its 1860 mortality schedule. We also see old age, croup, dropsey, pneumonia, influenza, and cancer among the causes of death. Ten year old Amanda W. Delp died from a fall.

The 1870 Jefferson County, Colorado schedule also gives us a few causes. We have a still born baby on the list and a few infants whose cause of death is listed as "debility." We have eye cancer, stomach and bowel influenza, lung fever, whooping cough, diphtheria, old age, and even a sore throat among the culprits. However, the most interesting entry is 3 month old Samuel Derby's "gravel."

Wright County, Iowa also has some interesting deaths. In their 1870 schedule, a 34 year old carriage maker by the name of Joseph Fulton was "killed in machinery." Nine year old George A. Peterson was "killed by eating ?" I'd love to know what that question mark was that he ate! Even if this transcription did not have a footnote describing the tragedy, one could look and see that the four deaths due to drowning in April 1870 must be from one incident. Dudley Gelman (age 65), William Rowen (age 30), Robert P. Rowley (age 35), and George Royce (age 28) apparently tried crossing the Iowa River when it was too high. Their 1880 census records Andrew Nelson's being crused in a sorghum mill and 10 year old Sherman Slaight's being "struck by Capston Sweep?" I don't know what a Capston Sweep is, but I don't think I'd like to be struck by one.

Roane County, Tennessee's 1880 schedule yields the murder of Dick Woods (age 38). Same Jones (age 35) was lynched. William Burnett (age 23) died of a pistol shot. Three year old William Sharp was burned. One year old Laura Renshaw died of worms and teething. That's the first time I've seen teething listed as a cause of death. John Keyhole (age 21) died from a kiln. John Eaton (age 12) was killed by cars on the railroad. James H. Day (age 30) "fell from trestel." One day old Bertheny Clark was "hurt by midwife." There is also a wide variety of disease listed among those enumerated.

Don't forget to check out the mortality schedules for the areas where your ancestors lived. They may add to your picture of what life was like for them in those days.

Today's Tasks

Today, I spent most of the day doing some much needed sorting and filing. Every now and then I'd stop to enter some source that caught my eye into my genealogical database if it had not been marked "entered." I also discovered that some stuff that I thought I'd entered was not in my database. There are two explanations for that, and the most likely is that I really did enter it, but it was in the period of time when my database wasn't saving correctly (and it wasn't readily apparent to me that it wasn't in the files from which I'd restore stuff). The other is that I didn't enter it, but I remember entering the stuff about Dime Box, Texas. Now, I'm going to have to enter all of that over again--but that's a project for another day. I also did a couple of batches for FamilySearchIndexing.org. One of the batches was a 1905 South Dakota census. That was interesting. I got 20 cards in the batch. Each person was reported on a separate card instead of all on a single sheet. The other was an 1850 batch from Franklin County, Maine. I loved it. The last family I indexed had the surname "Snowman." No - none of them were named Frosty! I may do a couple more batches before I head off to bed.

Interesting Household

I'm transcribing the 1850 Bullitt County, Kentucky census right now trying to reach 10,000 before tomorrow night. I decided it might be attainable if I worked on it enough. I found an interesting household. The household is that of Nathan Harris. It's a pretty typical farm household in most aspects. The reason I found it interesting is that Nathan (age 29) has a son Smith in his household. Now that's a name that you just don't see that often as a first name, but my gg-grandfather Walton A. Harris (b. 1812 in KY) also named one of his sons' Smith Harris. I have little reason geographically to believe that Nathan could be one of Walton's unidentified brothers, but I will eventually pursue it just to check it out just because of the son's name.

The other thing that is interesting about the household is that one of the two "boarders" (I'm calling them that since relationships are not stated in the 1850 census and the surname is different) has a rather interesting occupation. It is "learning English." Theodore Castelman, age 22, was born in France. It's a shame that many of today's immigrants no longer feel the need to learn the language of the country in which they are residing.

Census Challenge

Miriam, over at AnceStories, is challenging us to tell future generations where we are hiding in the censuses. I'm not telling my specific age, but I'll just say that I was in Amory, Mississippi through the 1980 census. By 1990, I was in Cincinnati, Ohio. By 2000, I was in Morristown, Tennessee, where you'll be pleased to know that I received a long census form to fill out.

Apologies for Lack of Posting

Wow . . . I just realized that it's been over a week since I posted. I've been busy. Can you tell? I was having headaches over last weekend and earlier this week. I think those have settled down. I've also been extremely busy at work and at church this week. I probably worked with over 1000 cataloging records for government documents this week in addition to teaching several students to repair books and other miscellaneous things that technical services librarians do. When I had the headaches, I just didn't feel like getting on the computer at night. I did index a few census records this week. Last night I came across one family where the mother was born in the summer of the year, and it said that the person born in the fall of that year was her son! That has to be a record. I think she was 3 months old when she gave birth if that was true. I believe that one was in Adams County, Mississippi, but it could have been an Arkansas record. Needless to say, I had a little chuckle as I keyed that information.

Robbing the Cradle

I've been indexing the 1900 Jefferson County, Mississippi today for FamilySearchIndexing.org. I have to say that I found some rather interesting data on the census. My first shocker was finding a 21-year-old man married to a 26-year-old woman who claimed to have been married 10 years with an 8-year-old child. Now, either they lied so the enumerator would think they were married when that baby was born, or there was some cradle-robbing going on. The bad thing is that was not the worst. There is a 50-year-old man married to a 37-year-old woman who claims to have been married 30 years. She married at age 7? Perhaps he'd been married for a total of 30 years between two marriages, but we either have a big error here or a definite case of robbing the cradle.

That Page Just Gets Better . . .

On the same page with Harry Potter in the 1900 White Co., Ill. census is a Joe Murphy who is not a cat, but a servant. This page is just full of literary illusions! If I want to create a successful character for a series of books, I think I'd better check this page!

Harry Potter is older than you think!

While indexing for FamilySearchIndexing.org, I got a batch from White County, Illinois for 1900. There was a 9 year old Harry Potter whose parents were Samuel and Elizabeth. One of his brothers was named Elvis!