josh is gross » genealogy http://www.joshisgross.com/blog there is no tagline Sun, 05 Feb 2012 11:45:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Genealogy: on census data http://www.joshisgross.com/blog/genealogy-on-census-data http://www.joshisgross.com/blog/genealogy-on-census-data#comments Sun, 22 Mar 2009 06:35:51 +0000 JoshuaGross http://www.joshisgross.com/blog/genealogy-on-census-data Continue reading →]]> Census data is a great resource for studying genealogy, but unfortunately, you have to use your imagination.

For one person, McGinnis Churchill, a distant relative, I’ve found census records under these names: Maginnis, McGines, and even Minnie (!) Churchill. I know they’re the same person because of the locations, birth dates, spouse and children names.

Granted, McGinnis is a weird name. Census enumerators can’t be blamed for misspelling it. McGinnis probably got sick of explaining and by 1930 said “screw it, just write down Minnie… no one’s going to look at these records in 79 years, anyway”. WRONG, MACK.

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