Getting Started on your Family Tree Part 2

Once you know what you have you can start searching for what you don't have! You can go looking for the records! 

 Start with census records.  
They are from the 1790-1940 (the 1940's was just released to the public in April and they are still working on indexing them.) The 1890 census was burnt in a fire, there is only a few states or parts left of it.You will need to find some other records to fill in that gap. Like city directories or state census. Census records are only released 72 years after it was taken, so the 1950 will be out in 2022!
 The earlier census don't have much information on them, just check marks for the number of people in a age group. But after the 1850 they ask various questions. The census will not only give you where your relatives lived, it will give you their age (sometimes their birth year and month), what state they were born, if married, how many years married, year they immigrated, occupation, address, and if a veteran of the civil war or other war. They are a treasure trove of information to the genealogist!   

Here are some census images for an example.

Here is Harold Hirdler and his family in the 1940 census (my great grandfather). 

 Source Information: Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1940. T627, 4,643 rolls.

Harold Hirdler in the 1930 census.

 Source Information:

Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1930. T626, 2,667 rolls.

If you find your grandmother in the census and it says that her father is born in New York, then that gives you a place to start looking for him and can lead you back another generation! Here are blank forms for the census records. You can print them out and fill them in, or you can just save the image of the census record and print that out. 

Here are some websites that have census records.

Ancestry.com is one of the biggest genealogy website out there, but you have to pay for a subscription to view the records. They have the census from 1790-1940 including some state census.

Also ask your local library if they have  access to Ancestry, there is a special edition just for them.

 

FamilySearch is free! You don't have to pay any thing, but you might have to make an account to see record images. They also have the census from 1790-1940 and state census. I use them a lot! 

Harold Hirdler with children Douglas, Kenneth and Geraldine and wife Marie

 Next week I will post about vital records!