How can people disappear during different census years?

Question

I found an ancestor, age 21 in 1870 and then never again in census records, so I assumed she died before 1880. Her daughter, age 3 in 1870 died in 1904 so she should have been on the 1880 at age 13 under maiden name, can't find her either. Found her two sibs living with grandmother, but know sign of her in 1880. Can anyone help me or give me an explanation?

Answer 1

Aha! The classic disappearing people (also related to people that mysteriously changed birthdates in 1920 only to return to the 1910 birthdate in 1930).

TECHNICALLY, a census taker was supposed to visit every household and speak with an adult to collect information about a family. If nobody was home, they were supposed to go back at a later time and try again, and again.

Well, that's what was SUPPOSED to happen. What often happened many times falls into a couple of categories.

A census taker just didn't even bother (through error or laziness) to cover a certain street or region - often happened just due to error when a particular street was on a district boundary or part of the street was shared between two boundaries. So some people were never even approached.

MANY census takers when faced with a family not at home (and the prospect of having to return later), often inquired of a neighbor if they knew anything about a family. If the neighbor indicated they did, the census taker would often use the neighbor's report vice coming back later. This is the classic example of people's ages being often years off between census. A neighbor would likely be able to identify each family member, the father, mother, even the children and probably even get the children in the right order, oldest to youngest. But ages??? Do you think your neighbor who certainly could tell someone your name and your children's name, could actually accurately give your age, your spouse's, your children's? Probably not.

In rural areas where there were often large distances between houses, sometimes a census taker would just take any information they could get from someone in the area instead of traveling that great distance. That was often even less accurate than the urban setting neighbor giving information.

Census certainly didn't catch everyone, especially way back when. And even those they did "catch" were sometimes done incorrectly. One other thing, and having worked census records extensively I have personally encountered numerous such cases, is that a families name could be horrendously misspelled. Even first names (sometimes a person used his middle name on one census and his first name on another - women often went by whatever they were casually called at the time (Anne, Annie, Nonie, whatever) instead of a legal name).

What I have done many times is work under a common situation that people often don't move in any 10 year period, or if they did (especially back around 1900), they didn't move very far.

I know where they lived 1870 so I use that information to determine the census district that includes that area in 1880. Then just start looking page by page. I have found MANY people either improperly indexed by the provider, or more often than not, had their names horrendously mangled.

Working census data is an artform. And as indicated above, there are many reasons people aren't listed or listed incorrectly.

Answer 2

Are you looking at the whole page of the census? If you are looking through Ancestry.com, view the entire document, in some census it only showed the head in the preview.
If she married again, her name would have changed. Sometimes names were misspelled by the census taker. And if she was known by a nickname, she could have been listed as such. Polly and Molly are nicknames for Mary. Search on her middle name if known. Good luck!
Also there were those people who would meet the census taker at the door with a shot gun! My Grandmother had that happen, she turned and left, but made a note on the paper.

Answer 3

I find about 90% of the ones I look for. They might be there under a name you didn't expect; either mangled, or, once in a while, a young married couple living with her folks get recorded under the father-in-law's name. usually it is mangled. If someone is named James Madison Pack, for instance, you have to look for

James Pack
Madison Pack
James M Pack
Madison J Pack
Jimmy Pack
Jas Pack
J M Pack
M J Pack

Use soundex or repeat for Back, Poke, Pock, Park, Pork and Puck at the very least.

People in Texas used initials more than anyone else, and people in the south more than the north, but they all did it.

I have some tips for different search techniques on
http://www.tedpack.org/lds1880.html

Answer 4

Wow! Tell you what: I am in my 60s and I have, so far in life, been included in EXACTLY 2 censuses. Liberals claim that censuses are complete and accurate, but if fact, they are neither complete nor accurate.
Looking for ancestors in a census is useful only to the point of CONFIRMING what you already know.
When I found the census record for my Dad's great grandfather, there was ABSOLUTELY nothing in the record to indicate that he was, indeed, my Dad's great grandfather.
When there are hundreds, even thousands, of persons across the country with the same name and the same approximate life span, you need much more than a census record to verify ancestry.
Lastly, most of my ancestors (the ones that were not born/died before the U.S. censuses began) are NOT listed in the censuses. So far in my searches, they are the least accurate or reliable source.

Answer 5

There's many reasons - mistranscription, untranscribed, out of the country, in the army, under different name/age/birthplace, enumerator never caught up with him. I searched for ages for my John Callaghan in the 1901 census, until I finally got hold of his army records and found out he was in Hong Kong at the time! Charles McDermott was equally elusive until I eventually found him transcribed as Charley Derricot. I still have many more missing from various censuses, I just keep plugging away in the hope I've find them one day. Mary McCormack, Where do you go for 20 years???

Answer 6

Sometimes children were split up. Too many mouths to feed. Neighbors or other relatives took in children. My great-grandfather's family was split up. The census takers also made mistakes. Had a very hard time finding my great-grandfather. Instead of being listed as Alexander, Thornton, he was listed as Orlando (his middle name), Alexander, and to make it more complex, he was living with his grandmother and her third husband who was named Kemplay.

Answer 7

*smile*
Wendy's condensed version-
a- they ARE there, but not where you expect. Anyone working census records will (at some time or another), find someone that the other person says is 'unfindable' OR someone will find the one YOU say is unfindable
for now, let's leave out the double enumerations, which I think happens sometimes when they got paid by the page.
b- It is a Federal record. What do you expect??

Answer 8

The Liberals argue that they are the better knowledgeable, and they could be perfect about the kind of hours they sat in a lecture room, yet there are all styles of ideas for someone to achieve intelligence, formal education is in difficulty-free words actual one of them. My very last boss has a Pilot's license, holds an operating engineer's certification, that is what you want to operate the great cranes that construct skyscrapers, He has an Aluminum AND glass contractor's licenses in Florida (it extremely is how i understand him) and at the same time as he has an extremely heavy Spanish accent (Ecuadoran) his vocabulary and grammar are in a lot of ideas better than mine. briefly, he's between the neatest human beings i understand, and he has NO college. Who might want to wager that between Obama and Bush, it could be Bush who's monetary numbers a lot extra heavily resembles Clinton's and also you may say what you want about Clinton, the monetary gadget changed into first rate lower than him. regardless of the actual undeniable reality that he changed into busy pulling the pins out of a basket complete of hand grenades to pass to his successor, which grew to develop into out to be Bush, that's glaring that Clinton knew the timer changed into no longer set to flow off until eventually six or seven years in, in basic terms in case Algor had received. .

Answer 9

In canada anyways, you can be asked to be removed from cencus records.
I have.
So prior to 2005 there is records........ nothing since.
Many times it is personal choice.
Could also be that the person left the country.