Why can't I find any census information?

Question

I have a pedigree chart of my family ZINN from 1742-1878, within the states of PA, WV, VA, and IL. I have the county and most of the time the town of residence, as well as names and dates of births, deaths, and marriages. I've looked at many censuses for any of my ancestors during these times and states, and cannot find a single census record. What might be the cause?

I am aware that names can be spelled incorrectly. The closest name I can find on any census is Zimmerman, which is nowhere near Zinn.

Answer 1

Hi queenrakle,

Why don't you post which ZINN family you are looking for. You would be amazed at the talent on this board! I have seen many of these people pull "lost" census information out of nowhere. Since these people that you are looking for are obviously deceased, you have nothing to lose! Just edit your question with the information and see what kind of response you get. Good luck!


EDIT: I noticed when I put in the surname ZINN, I get thousands of "hits" ( Between 2 in the 1790 census to 3205 in the 1930 census) When you do a Soundex search the number jumps from 3205 possibilities in the 1930 census to 20,983 "hits"

You might want to do a Soundex search with some of your known information if you do not wish to post the family you are researching here. I find that "tweaking" the search can be very helpful at times. CHEERS.

Answer 2

queenrakle..

Well, if this isn't like finding a needle in a haystack...

I've been attempting to find my ZINN connection in PA for over a decade. I'd be very interested in discussing the ZINN's with you if you wouldn't mind. I have a Mary ZINN born in 1810 in PA and married a William Smith who was also born in PA and lived for many decades in Wayne County, Ohio.

William and Mary (ZINN) SMITH had 6 children that I know of. John, Elizabeth, MaryAnn (my Great Great Grandmother), William, Albert and Mahala.

As for your not being able to find your ZINN's on any Census, have you taken into consideration the possibility of the enumerator misspelling the name? Most of the time the enumerator's spelled names how they sounded. ZINN could have been ZIN, ZEN, ZENN, SENN, CENN, SINN, CINN.

I just entered ZENN into a query on Heritage Quest for Censuses and found a 178 for the 1870 Federal Census. Under ther spelling ZIN, there is 177 for the 1870 Federal Census.

I hope we can continue this discussion.

Tammy..

Answer 3

I agree with the other answerers that transcription errors are causing the majority of your problems - Ted Pack's tips are good ones - if nothing else, go page by page through the town you're looking at to find them - it takes time, but the old fashioned way is still the best way if you're trying to find someone very elusive - of course, it's much more practical if we're talking about a small town and not a big city.

Another answer, which I haven't seen from others, is that perhaps your information is wrong. You say you have pedigree charts - where from? some of the information you find on-line is garbage (including from the LDS - at least from the user-submitted pedigrees) and the family you're looking for might not be a family, might not have lived where it says it's suppose to, etc. Remember too that from 1790-1840, only the heads of household are enumerated by name, so a multi-generational family living under one roof (or a boarding house) isn't going to be well-enumerated.

Good luck - and like others said, if you post your names, people on YA might be able to find them for you.

Answer 4

The census enumerator wrote funny then the person who did the transcription wrote what he thought he saw. I have one 1860 where I swear they took the guy up on the hill where I know they made whiskey and got the old boy too drunk to see or hear much less write legibly and besides I think it must have rained all over his ledger.

Now US censuses didn't begin until 1790 so before that you hunt tax & church records there in PA, and maybe Quaker meeting minutes if that's where they were. The next thing is - which version of census do you have access to? It matters!

HeritageQuests is literal and head of household only. Ancestry.com's is every person indexed from 1850, and the search template gives you all kinds of wild cards & other options. You can search for the kid with the funny name, in fact you can search by given name only, and I wouldn't swear to it but think I've found Zinn as Linn.

Answer 5

Mis-spelling, mis-transcribing probably account for most of your problems. They are probably there, somewhere. I have a whole page of tips that worked for me on the LDS 1880, many of which apply to the other census web sites' search engines. They may help you:

http://www.tedpack.org/lds1880.html

I find about 90% of the people I'm looking for, if get determined. Among other things, if a young couple is living with the wife's family, they sometimes get recorded with her father's last name. Ages are usually within 5 years; they are rarely exact.

Answer 6

Go to the Public Library, in your city, and ask one of the Geneologists to help you.