Okay, help me out with some genealogy?

Question

I need to know how this would work. How does someone just disappear? And I'm not talking kidnapping or anything. I KNOW my ancester William J. Phillips was living in Clarksville, TN in 1900. For certain, 100%. I know he was there in 1870. But, for some reason unknown to me, I can't find him. He's not on any census, for entire STATE of TN. Nowhere. How does one just...vanish? I know he was there; I have pictures of him being there, he owned a business there. So where in all bloody hell did he go? Someone PLEASE help me out with this; it's driving me NUTS!

(though many would say I'm already there.)

Answer 1

All of the above are good suggestions, but put aside the Census for a moment. As I'm sure you know, Clarksville is in Montgomery County, and their is a website that was created for genealogists. As a matter of fact, their is a contact person for the surname thay you are looking for. (Phillips). Also consider the Tennessee Archives or the Montgomery County Courthouse to see if their are any court records on your ancestor. Since he owned a business, there would definately be records, (tax deed, etc). Also check to see if their are any city directories for that time period. If you have any other surnames, that might unlock the puzzle.


Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Are you looking at more than the census?

For instance, if you are in Clarksville, go to the library and check out the special collections / local history room. They may have city directories back that far, and he might be in them.

Back to the census - I have found people in the census under the wrong name; either the transcriber or indexer did a bad job, or the enumerator took a guess. My most recent example was two men in their 20's living with their mother and stepfather. They were listed with their stepfather's surname - Haddock - instead of their own, McLeod. If your William is living with his father-in-law, that might happen.

Southerners are notorious for using initials. If his are WJ, and the "W" looks like an "M" (I've seen that), he would be there as MJ instead of WJ. If he reverses the two, (I've seen that too) your WJ could be there as JW.

If his father-in-law is Ebeneezer Jablonski, with a worse-case scenario, (bad surname, W -> M, reverse initials) he might be on the 1880 as JM Jablonski. His birth year can be off by 5, too.

I have seen all of these errors. The chance of them all happening to the same man are slim.

I find about 90% of the people I look for in the census. The rest are lost forever. Sometimes you just have to keep trying.

One afternoon I got really determined to find my Rudolph Wysmann, who is also Wyssman, Weisman, Wiesmann, etc.

I went to the LDS 1880 and waded through all the men born in Switzerland between 1810 and 1830 with the first name Rudolph. I finally found him:

Rudolph Weiness, Self, W, Male, W, 60, Switz., Farmer, Switz., Switz.
Godfried Weiness, Son, S, Male, W, 25, Switz., Farmer, ---, ---
Anna Weiness, Dau, S, Female, W, 17, Switz., Keeping House, ---, ---

I knew that was him because the given names matched, the ages matched and the county was right. Anna there married my GGF two years later.

Answer 3

Don't let this drive you crazy. I am having the same problem with my great-grandfather from 1920. Sometimes the census takers missed a house or no one was home. In those cases, the the census taker would ask a neighbor for the information. There are so many mistakes on the census logs. I would imagine many people are missing. Look for other resources like church records.

Answer 4

Censuses were not super accurate back in the day. It is entirely possible that he was there and just didn't get counted. For instance, I have a relative who was on a census around the turn of the century living with his parents. The next census, he was not counted because he was something of a vagrant for a few years and technically lived nowhere and he just got missed when they did the count. Then he turned up on the next census as a boarder in another family's house.
Weird like that.
PS. I was born in Clarksville Tenn!!

Blessings, W.

Answer 5

I wish I could help you. I have 2 ancestors that have dropped off the face of the Earth. A gr-gr-gr grandfather who is not in the 1870 or 1880 census, but his family is living with his parents. A great grandfather who apparently walked out on his wife and was never seen again. My grandmother never got to know him or her mom who died a month after giving birth to my her. Been there, done that. Good luck.

Answer 6

No one disappears really. The documentation may disappear, or you may not know where to look, but you keep trying.

Check this first site it is a William J. Phillips, in Alabama. It is the LDS website for family search. Put in his first and last name, and be sure to set the country to United States. You will find a record there like the one below. Perhaps, he moved to TN then back. Hard to say. Also search in Yahoo for "Phillips Family", this will give other people searching the same tree you are, or at least some of the branches.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

William Jefferson PHILLIPS (AFN: 4RGQ-1C) Pedigree
Sex: M Family

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Event(s):
Birth: 8 Mar 1869
Empire, Walker, Al
Death: 13 Dec 1937
Birmingham, Jefferson, Al

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Parents:
Father: Jefferson Lawrence PHILLIPS (AFN: CT7L-MK) Family
Mother: Evie E. BURNHAM (AFN: CT7L-NQ)


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Marriage(s):
Spouse: Nana Lee GOODWIN (AFN: 4RGQ-2J) Family
Marriage:

Answer 7

the" natchez trace" that conveyed much of the traffic of settlers into the southwest was a very dangerous passage on occassion!!!lodges along the roads would sometimes kill their "guests and steal their belongings!!!brigands haunted the forests waylaying "pilgrims"and the unwary!!cargoes on wagon were stolen and the drivers killed or driven into the forest!!!a good rifle and a steady aim was all that saved the ones lucky enough to survive that "pathway" alone;and there were many others toward the west and to the north!!indians defending their forests were equally dangerous and were always being vied for by different "european" interests to try and stop "manifest destiny from succeeding across the continent!!!!the "great madrid earthquake" shook the whole "middlewest" throwing rivers out of their borders and rolling across the land in ripples,throwing riverboats into cornfields;and changing the river's courses!!!a dangerous place in time!!!

Answer 8

Check ship records from the area and date. My family can't find from where my great-grandfather stowed away and arrived in South America on an American ship!

Answer 9

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Answer 10

Maybe someone destroyed all the records of him.
Check if he was involved in anything "bad".
If he was he probably destroyed all the papers and documents so he could get a fresh start?