It's Like Christmas Every Day

Okay maybe not everyday but some days in genealogy really to feel like Christmas has come.

I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. Those days when you put in a name not really expecting to find anything new because you have only looked up this person like a thousand times and then bamm, a new record that you have never seen and all of a sudden you are back in business. It's like a total rush when that name pops up and you get all gitty and start doing little happy dances in your chair. You want to rush out and tell the world what you found, show them the record and make them understand the importance of such a find. Sadly, most people won't get it but us genealogist do. Each and every time we will always get it.

I had such an experience this weekend. I went to genealogy conference in my local area last Saturday and there was some great information passed out to us all but the best news that I received all day was that familysearch.org updated their site. Seriously, if you haven't been in awhile you need to check it out. This is where I had my great find.

I came home exhausted from the early morning wake up (6am) and although I wanted to jump on the computer and play around with my new found knowledge I simply could not keep my eyes open. After a much needed nap I did actually get on the computer but I went straight to Facebook as per my daily routine (I hate it and I love it). Once I was done stalking my normal folks I decided to give this new familysearch website a try. I typed in Henry Ellis which most of you know has been the bain of my search and of course nothing popped up. Big shocker (not my sarcasm). Then I decided to try his son Mack B. that has been just as much of a pain as Henry considering I have never found him on any census record with Henry or Cassie or any of his sisters. I sat waiting for the wrong records like always to come up but lo and behold the first two records were marriage records which could be him as I am not sure how many times he was married but the third record was what had me jumping out of my seat. The third was a 1930 census that listen Mack B. with his mother in one household. OMG!!!!!

That is not only the first time I have seen him on a census but the first time I have linked him to his parents and it also gave me another clue about Henry as Cassie was listed as single. That would mean that by the thirties they were no longer married and it would mean that I need to be looking for Henry either in a household alone or re-married. I couldn't believe it. It also shed some light onto those two marriage records. If Mack was living with his mother and single in 1930 then he couldn't have married either of those women in the twenties. Deck the halls!

I was so excited that I continued to look for more information and sure enough didn't find anything else on Henry but I was still excited. To finally find this family in the thirties was amazing. Too prove that there was at least one census that had my great uncle listed with at least one of his parents was wonderful especially since I remember this uncle. I was young but I remember visiting him and his wife, I remember them coming up to see us, and I remember going to his funeral because it was one of the creepiest funerals I had ever or have ever been too. It would have sucked to never have found him attached to my family when I knew that he was but now I have someplace to look and a record to build on. Fa-la-la-la-la!!!

Pause For A Commercial Break

Okay so I didn't want to do any post that seemed political or on a different subject here but I am thinking that this one relates so I will go ahead and add it.

Coming home today I stopped at our mailbox and low and behold our 2010 census was here. I did a little happy dance in my car and then proceeded inside. Why was I happy? Allow me to explain and this will also show how the topic is related to genealogy.

We fill out the 2010 census the same as they did in 2000, 1990, 1980, so forth and so on. Now I know that there has been much talk about the cost of this census being that we are in a recession and the government needs to trim whereever possible (this is the political) but lets imagine that during the great depression they felt the same way. When you start to trace back through census records, because that really is the best and only way other than word of mouth and that isn't always accurate, then you might have a relative that is listed in 1940 but not in 1920. Granted the 1940 census hasn't been released yet but if your mother told you that your grandmother was born in 1934 and seeing that she has passed away and your mother never knew her grandparents then you my friend or at a dead end unless you can find someone that could give you a name or a court record with her parents names listed. This might seem easy if you live in Kansas and your grandparents were born and raised in Kansas also but what if they were born in Ohio or Virginia or Tennessee. See where you would run into problems.

The census is not only good to track population increases and where federal money would be best spent but to track families and relatives and those that we might not find otherwise. Being African-American I can tell you that my search would be alot easier if African-Americans had been just that. Instead I have blacks, coloreds, negros, and in the case of where I am now not even a name. If they had been counted as people instead of proporty then I might know who my great, great, great, great grandfather was right now but that is a different blog.

My point is that although it might seem like time taken away from your busy life and possibly a complete waste of time; it isn't. Decades from now if no one follows your footsteps and doesn't continue keeping track of your genealogy then your decendents will be glad you took those few minutes out of your day and filled it out.