Gene Notes

Some random and some not-so-random thoughts on family history.

Saturday, May 1, 2010

What Was the Census Taker Thinking?

I've been working on the Family Search Record Search Site or the New Family Search Beta site - same info different formats - and finding lots of good stuff. One was a marriage record for William W. Dunham in Montana, son of Job Dunham and Hannah Percival (Percivil on the record). Of course, I had no idea he had gone to Montana. With this information I went to Ancestry to look for William Dunham in Montana, and of course, he wasn't there! If you use a search engine as much as I do, you will know that sometimes less is more. So I tried again, removing Montana from the search and there was William and Almeda Dunham and their family in Fremont County, Idaho. I found them again in 1910 and by 1920 Almeda was a widow. I found her in Pocatello, Idaho as recently as the 1938-39 City directory. I searched and searched before I found a death record for Margaret Almeda Dunham. Yeesh, what you have to go through to find stuff.

In looking over the 1910 census for this family, I had to wonder about the census transcription. You see, she transcribed Clod for Claud. Poor kid!

Copyright 2010, ACK for Gene Notes

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