Case Study Part 1

Searching the Census Worksheet

 

Answer the Following Questions

Finding Information in the Census (Federal and State)

  1. Download the Gedcom of August Heimbigner.
  2. Look at the birth date and birth information for August and answer the following questions:
    1. In order to find out more information on his parents, why would we want to search the census first?

 

    1. Which census should we check first and why?

 
 

    1. At which websites can we search this census?

 

  1. Go to either of the websites you have listed and search the 1910 census. Put in as much information about August as you can and then search for him; he should be among the first results to pop up. View his record and answer the following questions
    1. How do we know that this is the right August Heimbigner?

 

    1. What are August's parents’ names?

 

    1. What can we learn about them?

 

If you struggle reading the column heads view the census templates available at http://www.ancestry.com/charts/census.aspx.

    1. At this point you should have at least John and Anna's birth dates, marriage date, and immigration dates. Enter and source this information in the RootsMagic file.
      1. Enter the information by selecting the event from the pull down menu under “Add a Fact.”
      2. For one of the events you have entered add a census source citation:
        1. Click on the event to be cited.
        2. Click the “Sources” button.
        3. Click on “Add a new Source.”
        4. Select “Census, U.S. Federal (Online Images)” from the template selection
        5. Enter the information in the boxes following the guidelines provided in gray lettering
          1. In the credit line you should enter the roll number. In Ancestry this can be found on the right hand side in the source citation box. FamilySearch does not provide this information for most of their census records.
          2. Civil division refers to the name of the precinct.
          3. Enumeration district numbers can be found on the top right hand corner of the image.
        6. Give the record a master source name that will be broad enough to be reusable, but narrow enough to be pertinent to all the information contained in the yellow master source box.
      3. Now that we have found one census, why would you want to search another census for a different year?

     

    1. You may search for the family in 1900 or 1920, select a census year and complete one of the following options.

    Option 1: 6-8

    1. Search the 1920 census for John or August. Put in as much information as you can and they should be towards the top. Find the record, open it and then answer the following questions...
      1. What happened, why is some of the information correct and familiar and the rest different?

     

      1. What does this imply about Anna M?

     
     

      1. View the original record at this point and determine what new information we can find.

     

    1. Notice that Catharina's immigration occurred before she was born. This as an example showing why you can't always trust the census. Another thing to notice is that the 1920 census doesn't list years married. Every census is different and that's why we don't just settle for checking one. We won't worry about Catharina too much more in this exercise so just keep her name in mind.

     

    1. Enter the new information you have found in RootsMagic.

     

    Option 2 (9-10)

    1.  Search the 1900 Census for August or John Heimbigner at Ancestry.com.
      1. Notice that the record we find of them has two names to tag it. The first is incredibly misspelled and explains why we cannot find it at FamilySearch.

     

      1. Enter any new information you may find in the RootsMagic file.

     

      1. Compare the 11th and 12th columns on the 1900 census and the 10th and 11th columns on the 1910 census for Anna M Heimbigner. What does this indicate about the Heimbigner family? 

     

    1. Enter any new information you have found in RootsMagic.