Hi listers, I still consider myself a newbie searching for ancestors. I have made some mistakes along the way and hopefully have learned from them. Take for instance the census. This has been a great tool for me . But I have also discovered surnames are misspelled. Not only by the transcribers for the indexes but also by the census takers themselves.Of course most people already know this! Having a look at the actual census page itself may make all the differance in the world. The 1870 census for Fulton Co. Il. is indexed on line here at rootsweb. I have been for the longest time trying to figure out where my ZITTLE family disappeared to from 1860 -1870. The index for 1870 did not include any ZITTLE's from Fulton Co. I subscribe to Ancestry.com census and thought just for the heck of it I would have a look at the Deerfield twp. images just to make sure. Well ,to my surprise I found them. Their name was mispelled in the 1870 census ,instead of ZITTLE it was SITTLE and Cittle. How do I know it is the same family? Husband,wife and children all given names are the same as 1860 ,ages are added up the way they should be and the country of origin is the same. and 1880 there are no Sittle or Cittle families in Deerfield twp. it is back to being spelled ZITTLE. The Il. state wide marriage index also has a number of differant spellings for this surname. And this is only a thought, these folks came from Germany, they most likely spoke broken English. How did the name sound when it was spoken to the census taker? I guess I have learned another lesson in genealogy. Expect the unexpected and never assume anything. If by chance you have an opinion on this subject or this surname , I sure wouldn't mind hearing it. Thanks for listening! Tina _________________________________________________________________ Help STOP SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail

Tina wrote: > The 1870 census for Fulton Co. Il. is indexed on line here at >rootsweb. I have been for the longest time trying to figure >out where my ZITTLE family disappeared to from >1860 -1870. The index for 1870 did not include >any ZITTLE's from Fulton Co. I always get confused by Rootsweb vs. Ancestry, since I think Ancestry actually owns Rootsweb now. So when you write the index at Rootsweb, Tina, do you mean a separate Rootsweb index or the index at Ancestry? Is there a Rootsweb index for 1870 IL? I'm always looking for indexes :-) But, in any event, although Ancestry suggests they have indexed 1870 IL, as far as I can determine only Cook Co. is actually indexed. That would explain why your Zittles didn't show up on that 1870 index. Margaret