>Thought this was interesting enough to pass along. > >HOW TRUE~~~~~~~~ > >Taken from Roots Web - Review > > >by Jenny Calvin > >My grandmother (born a Burgess), now age 91, has been very >helpful and patient with all my family history questions. >However, doing census searches in between asking her questions >sheds some light on why we have trouble finding those elusive >ancestors. > >Armed with a list of her daddy's siblings in random order, I >began my search. Very few of the names matched those on the >census, so I went back to ask her more questions: > >"Do you think 'Mary J.' in the census could be your Aunt Mae?" >"I don't know -- her name was Mary, but we always called her >Mae." Score 1! > >"Do you think 'Nancy M' could be your Aunt Minnie?" >"Could be. I was named after her." Score? > >"Was Uncle Lee's first name Walter? There is a Walter L. in the >census." >"I don't know. I never saw him but once or twice. He lived in >McKinney, Texas." (Information from another researcher showed a >Walter L. in McKinney, Texas.) Score 1! > >"I haven't been able to find Sam, Arlene, and John Haley in any >of the censuses." >"Oh! They were my daddy's half-siblings! His second wife was >named Ella, Pappy called her Miss Ella, and she out-lived Pa >Burgess." (They apparently married in the late 1890s and were >never in a census together; Pa Burgess died in January of 1900, >before Ella and the three children were counted in the census >in April; she was 37 years younger than he was, so I never would >have guessed her to be his wife.) Score 3! > >"I can't find your Uncle Jack in any census, but there is a >Millard living with your daddy who is listed as his brother." >"Uncle Jack didn't like his name, so he changed it. He moved to >Amarillo, Texas." Score 1! > >"In the 1910 census, there is a 5-month-old named Margrette, but >that's how old your sister Ellen should have been." >"Pappy wanted to name her Margrette, but Mama wanted to name her >Ellen Rose. Her name really is Ellen Rose, but Pappy called her >Margrette most of the time, and we all just called her Baby." >(Guess who answered the census-taker's questions?) Score 1! > >These are just a few examples. Is it any wonder we can't find >our ancestors? What a blessing it is still to have my >grandparents to ask. Be sure to ask questions of your living >relatives -- when they're gone, so much information is gone >with them. > > >-- >History is made by the famous and the not so famous. > >Bud <West Virginia> > > >--part1_a1.229da9f.25e6a6e8_boundary--