A recent tip in Ancestry Daily got me thinking about missing fathers. The ideas were expressed by George Farrell called "Scattered Families" in which he outlined some thoughts on why we couldn't find the head of household or found families scattered amongst other families. I'd like to dwell on this subject a little and expand on some of the thoughts he gave. Have you ever been reading a census, attempting to track a family through those huge 10 year gaps and lost the father? You assume (and we all know how dangerous that is!) that poor John Doe has passed to the great beyond leaving no record at this time of the date of his demise or place of burial. But wait! Ten years later, he shows up again! Are you sure it's the same man? Yes … approximately the same date of birth, same occupation, and there's his family. What happened? You eliminate the approximate date of death for him from your gedcom and start digging. Or - have you lost family members from a census. Did they die? Did they marry? Is that the same child living in another state with an unknown family? Surely not! Let's start with missing children who appear elsewhere. Some possibilities might include: 1 - the mother has died and the father is unable to care for them. Families were large in the past and there were times when the father just couldn't work enough hours to provide for them. Thus, the children were sent to live with other family members, neighbors or friends. 2 - the mother has died and the County Clerk has found it necessary to indenture out the children - or some of them - to other families to learn a trade. 3 - the older boys moved in with neighbors and hired on as farm hands to help supplement the income. 4 - an unwed daughter who finds herself in a family way. A blot on the reputation of the family; there were no special homes for unwed mothers in the early days. So the girls were spirited off, many times in the middle of night, to stay in some other distant area with a relative or friend to save the family the embarrassment of being "found out". 5 - Were the children placed in an orphanage? This was a last resort per Mr. Farrell and he is quite true. Orphanages came a little later in the history of our country and were often not the greatest places in the world. Families did everything possible to keep the children nearby or with family members. But, what about those missing dads? Have you considered any of the following, of which Mr. Farrell mentioned a few. This is assuming the father is alive and covers many years of our history; one would have to determine the date of his missing status. 1 - Was he incarcerated? A sobering thought but men were sent to jail or the state penitentiary. Have you checked the census records for prisoners? 2 - Did he get the gold fever and head out west to seek his fortune? Families rarely traveled with the man; this was not the place for women and children. The husband might be gone many years panning for gold - or digging for silver - and many never did return. Those that did often came home broken in health, and broken in finances. 3 - Did the father work for the railroad? Could he be someplace else in the country laying track? Men by the thousands chose this occupation and traveled to where the next track was to be laid, not returning until the job was done. 4 - Was there a crisis going on in the country during this time? The Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, a natural disaster such as tornadoes, hurricanes, flooding, etc? Could the family be left in destitute conditions due to any of these and have to split up for a time with the father seeking employment elsewhere and hoping to rejoin his family soon? 5 - Was the father fighting a war? There are plenty to choose from - the Indian wars, Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Civil War, Spanish-American War, World War I, etc. 6 - Was he hiring out himself for farm labor to supplement his family's income; working for neighbors nearby or for someone many miles away? 7 - Could he have been there all along? Well, it happened … census takers were supposed to talk a responsible adult when compiling the information. But, it was not always done. Foot weary or seat weary, they sometimes asked the children or the elderly who might have answered the question, "where is your father?" by saying "he's not here." He might have been on a trip, out in the field, but the census taker concluded wrongly that the father no longer lived there. Anything is possible in the wonderful world of genealogy! I hope this has given you some new ideas on missing fathers or family members. Wives/mothers could be missing off the census records too of course; they could have moved temporarily to some other location to help a family member who was ill or was nearing childbirth, families helped each other. © Copyright 13 October 2005, Sandra K. Gorin Sandi's Puzzlers: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~gensoup/gorin/puz.html SCKY Links: http://www.public.asu.edu/~moore/Gorin.html GGP: http://ggpublishing.tripod.com/