Really disappointing news to share this week……… and I’d like to know if any of YOU have had a parallel experience. My hubby’s father, Charles Alexander Phillips, was born in 1906 in Toledo, Ohio and he was consistent in saying that. I was eagerly looking forward to seeing him in the 1940 census, not because I expected to learn much new, but just to find him and document him one more time. (Those Phillips have been elusive.) Finally, Washington was completed and posted! Fantastic! So I did a search for “Charles Phillips, b. 1906 in Ohio, living in Seattle.” Negative. NEGATIVE!
To shorten the story, I finally found him BUT the index lists his birthplace as Oklahoma! And the original census document very clearly says Ohio. So this means that two different people looked at that census image, and wrote Oklahoma for Ohio………… however in the world could two people have made that awful, terrible mistake????
Chuck was married to Rose, a registered nurse, and he worked for Shepard Ambulance Service. This was in April 1941 and they soon divorced and it’s a unlovely, long, convoluted, unhappy story…… but that’s another story.
I’m just awfully terribly disappointed at finding this mistake. I hate to say it, but it does kinda rather make me doubt the other things I find in the index??????? Have you experienced something like this? If so, please share it.
Donna, aka Mother Hen, until next week.
At least you found him. Can’t find my father Robert Schoch born 1917 Ohio. Enlisted 1941 from California. Was in Riverside County, CA in 1937 acording to family stories. Found my mother Georgia Peterson living with her Aunt Esther Witcher. Her Father George Wesley Peterson born 1899 Iowa no where to be found, but my mother said her Dad was an air raid warden during WWII and she was living with him and step mother. Her mother died in 1938. Frustrated.
Donna, I was really disappointed with the 1930 for Washington, hoping to find my parents in Mossy Rock, just a few months after their marriage. But try as I may to find alternative spellings, ages, etc., they were not in the index. I began looking at every ED around Mossy Rock, and after several hours, I deterimined that Mossy Rock was not there! Places just outside of Mossy Rock were there but not one entry for within the town. I know that the 1930 and 1940 originals were microfilmed by the Census Bureau during WWII, and that soon after that, they destroyed the originals. But what I didn’t know was that certain areas of the census were either not microfilmed, or overlooked by the census takers. But, I had success with 1940, when my folks were living in Corvallis, Oregon, with five young children. Everything looked good for ages, birthplaces, etc., except not for me — I didn’t arrive until 1942, so I get to wait another eight years to see myself in a census for the first time. Turns out, Leland was born 12 days after the 1950 census was taken, so he has to wait for the 1960 to see himself for the first time. Good luck with that Leland.
-bill$hide
It depends on which site you are looking at, too! Ancestry misspelled my great-grandmother’s name, but Archives.com got it right. I think Archives and Family Search are working together and that may be why they are a better source. Arbitration makes a difference over speed in publishing online! I have found many mistakes on Ancestry, but have found the correct info on FS. Don’t get me wrong. I still love using Ancestry! BUT FS is giving them competition. IMHO Ancestry may need to slow down and make sure of the content they are putting online.
Joyce
I have found many cases in pretty much all of the censuses where those doing the indexing mis-read the names. One trick I have used successfully is to search for an unusual first name of a family member (if you’re lucky enough to have one!) I skip the last name but add geographic info and have found the missing family. Back in the day, families often moved from one location to the next as a group. Perhaps searching for a cousin and then browsing that area will uncover that elusive relative.
Dear Mother Hen,
Sorry about the mistake in the census extraction. I work several hours each day to help make the records available to anyone who is interested in finding their ancestors. I have indexed over 1/3 of a million. It is very hard to read many of the records. We all try to make them as accurate as possible. In my opinion the OK for Oklahoma may look identical to the OH for Ohio as the original census taker wrote it down. Maybe you would be better served to look at the original record for yourself to see if you can decipher it better. No one does a perfect job but we do our best and do it out of a love for any genealogist who needs help.
I too am an indexer for FamilySearch.org and Rick is right — some of the handwriting is difficult and subject to different interpretations. For those who don’t know the process, the same document is indexed by two different people. If there are discrepancies between the two, an arbitrator determines what is correct. Although I have a 99% accuracy, there are times when I am certain my interpretation was correct but the other was chosen to make the published record. All in all I think we are a conscientious bunch who do our best to do a good job. I hope that sometime in the future familysearch.org will add a feature allowing users to add an alternate (correction), as ancestry does. I’ve used that feature on ancestry to correct family names misread by the indexer.
My experience with the 1940 census,
My husband is Larry Gene Voris, he is listed as Lany Line Voris.
This is in Scottsbluff, Scotts Bluff County, Nebraska.
When you magnify the handwriting, you can see is says Larry Gene Voris, not Lany Line Voris.
Also his aunt and uncle live next door at 2020 1st Avenue. He is
listed as “Egra” not “EZRA” and his wife is Hazel I. not Hazel “L
Ezra and Hazel L. Walker is correct.
Is there anyting I can do to get it corrected??
Hazel Voris hmvoris@sbcglobal.net