Friday, May 20, 2011
The Youngest Child With the Simplest Name
When searching any everyname database to a census, start with the youngest child who has the "easiest" name. Children's ages tend to be closer in census enumerations and names like John and Sarah, while they may have some variants are not nearly so bad as names like Henrietta and Permelia.
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It is true that using the simplest name will avoid not finding your family due to faulty transcription or bad indexing. However, if your John is a John Smith or your Joe is a Joe Jones, it could actually make your search more difficult. If the surname is very common try instead looking for the child with the least common name. You'll more easily find him/her than other siblings. Permelia Person will turn up b/4 Pam Person.
ReplyDeleteExcellent suggestion. I use this often when I know the family should be there somewhere...!
ReplyDeleteIt works!
Cheers,
Theresa (Tangled Trees)