US Census Records are a gateway documents collection for
beginning genealogists to start building their family tree and
today I'm going to walk you step by step on how to utilize
census records on FamilySearch to find them add them to their
tree. Deal with strange reasons why you're not finding your
ancestors in the census records and how to add multiple people
from a census record to your family tree. Stay tuned through
it all. What exactly is a modern US Census Records? Well,
there's two ways you can define it. It could be defined from
the point where every household person was listed and that
would be 1850 to present or it could also be every member of a
household was listed as well as their relationship to the head
of the household and that would be 1880 and forward. However,
we do genealogical research and we're researching our family
tree we need to begin with the most modern record and work our
way back so this strategy takes you from present to past or
recent to past using a case study and so we're going to
start actually with the 8 19 40 census record and move back to
access to census search go to search and go to Records and
then we're going to scroll down and we're going to bypass the
main search page and we're going to go to a specific
search collection. So, if you're zoomed out, it'll
actually be side by side and the one you want is down here.
If you're zoomed in, then, it will drop down. So, we're going
to go in and we're going to search for US Census Records,
you get the State Census record, Obanian, Argentina,
that doesn't work. So, you really need to type in United
States Census Records and then it would be really nice if we
could just go here and you know, type in that and get all
of em at the same time. Instead, what you need to do is
be very focused on what you're trying to research. So, the
first person I'm trying to find in this study should appear in
the 1940 Census. So, we always want to start with the most
recent census record that the that we're researching could've
lived in and then work our way backwards. So, at the time unit
of this video, 1940 is the one that works. So, now, we're
going to go ahead and type in the person we're searching for.
Now, notice I'm only using bare minimum information. I'm not
even putting a date in. I can put a date in later if I need
to. Click search and I begin reviewing the search results to
see if I can find something that matches my person but as
you can see, the names have already started changing from
Andrew. So, need to go and refine my search for results.
Not a problem. I'm going to put in his birth as 1883 to 1885
because he was born in 1884. That should give me some help.
And here's the one I was looking for. So the first thing
I needed to do because it's not attached to a family tree is I
need to go ahead and click on that index and see them if this
family looked like what I expected. And so there's his
wife Anna his daughter Theresa, Marcella, Harry, and Robert and
I'd actually be looking for Robert and I can now either
save this to my source box, copy the full record, print out
the record or attach it to the family tree. I can also copy
the source citation into a genealogy software program or I
can put it into my research plan but notice they think they
have found Andrew already in my tree which is fantastic because
I can go ahead and click attach to FamilySearch. So the next
thing I'm going to do because this is all part of searching
searching isn't just searching but search isn't also saving
what you find to the family tree or to the search box so
you can use it later so the first thing I'm going to do is
I'm going to go ahead and add that residence information
what's really great is if this information doesn't look like
you want it to let's say it's a Dayton com award something you
can go ahead and take that out and fix it up however you want
and you can go ahead and click Dayton right here and then if
it had said Dayton let me show you an example so Dayton Ward
three really isn't a great location so I would take Dayton
Ward three out put Ward three down here the reason statement
and then just said Dayton Montgomery County Ohio and then
now I have that selected place now what about this same house
information this only happens in the 1940 US Census I'm
going to go ahead and bring that over it was likely meant
that in 1940 they were in the same house as 1935 so now I can
write a reason statement and include that ward 3. So I went
ahead and wrote a reason statement. Uh household of
Andrew and Anna, here's their living that street was listed
on the record and it actually turned out it was Ward nine.
He's a janitor at a hotel and I could always make this down
better also in the household and I talked about the
additional people in the household. However, you're
going to write your reason statement. Write them in such a
way that if you attach this source to multiple people, you
don't have to keep rewriting the reason statements. So,
let's go ahead and show you how to do that. So, I'm going to go
ahead and click attach And then I can click Anna Geisler and
repeat the process. Grab this. Change that. And go ahead and
attach. Now, we have a decision to make. If this is our family,
we can go ahead and start adding everybody into the
family tree but be careful because living people can be
attached to your profile but they're going to be attached to
everybody in their dog's profile who puts them into
their private family tree. So, living people go into your
private family tree. Deceased people go into the public
family tree. So, you have to be very very careful about adding
people to the family tree if you're not sure if living
because you really don't want to kill somebody off. They
will get very very mad if they're living and in the tree
that they're killed off. So, at this point, I'm not going to go
ahead and add Theresa. I'm going to go ahead and show you
what to do next now that we found that one record for
Andrew but stay tuned a little bit later in this video. I will
be showing you how to add children to the FamilySearch.
Don't assume anything when you're doing Census Records
Research so I was presented this name and asked to search
for him. Well, it turns out the surname was wrong, slightly
wrong. It wasn't similar to Geisler or some derivative. It
turned about to be something different and so how do we go
about searching for our ancestors when we're like,
that's what's going on here. First thing I did was I
filtered by sex and I said, alright, I want everybody named
Andrew Geisler with this very but that didn't work. So, I'm
trying to find the 1930 census. We go backward in time. So, I'm
trying to find 1930 Census. I'm not seeing the 1930 Census
here. So, something's not going going well. I'm going to go
ahead and add that filter and keep playing with my search
results. I tried to add another person. I've tried to add
Theresa. See if that would show up with anything and I'm still
getting the craziest names here. So, then I finally
thought, alright. Okay, time to try to do spelling variations.
What if I have the wrong first letter. So, I'm going to go
ahead and click search and finally, I'm starting to find
the people that I want. So, at 1920, there's Marcella and
Theresa and Harry plus some other people in the house.
1940, this is the one that I thought. Let's see if there's
1930 in here somewhere but any case, I have this one from
1920. So I'm going to go ahead and click on this 1 So 20 years
prior to the one that I was looking at. They're living on
Montgomery Street. There are quite a few kiddos in this
house. I like this partial dates because I can see
Six months prior to the date, zero months prior to date, zero
fronts prior to. That's a gives you a good indication if you
don't have a month when somebody was born, those
fractional dates can help you. He's renting which was no
surprise that we come over here. He is a stable boss at a
cement and coal company. So, he's kind of moving around. He
does a 20-year difference. I need to try to see if I can
figure out where they are in 1930. Now that I see that
there's a possibility of Andrew in the 1920 Census with a
different spelling. I'm going to keep playing the
spelling variation. So, I'm going to come up here and I'm
going to take his last name and I'm going to make sure there's
an asterisk between the I S E R. Maybe there are two letters
that combine that sometimes it looks likes a G sometimes it
look like an H I'm not sure so I'm going to go ahead and put
an asteric right there and I'm going to come down here or
actually I'm going to click search and then I'm going to
click on collections and I don't want all I just want the
1930 collection and I'm going to click apply filter and
now I'm going to try to see if I can find Andrew in Montgomery
County and I probably should go ahead and put another filter on
here and put the location I want to see that he is in I'm
up here to residence. I want Montgomery. Click exact, and
click search. When I filter to the 1930 Census, I have several
results and here's the first one I want which has Marcella,
Harry, Robert, and Anna. So, I can go ahead, link this record
to my profile and notice that it this isn't picking up that
attached to the FamilySearch actually. It's picking up. Now,
these are similar records that I can look at and some profiles
that it's already attached to. So, either I need to do some
merging which is probably in my future or I need to go ahead
and attach this because these are the same people from 1940.
So, I'm going to select and I'm going to go through and repeat
the process of attaching the information, writing a reason
statement, and attaching to all these family members. Now, as
you're doing Census Records Research, you're going to come
across things that need to change on the FamilySearch
profile. Now, you can't edit things such as the name and the
birth date and the birthplace as you're finding the census
records but you Can go back and change the profile after you
attach the census record. So, the next thing I need to do is
I need to go through here and add the spelling variation So,
here I wrote a note something to the fact that the correct
surname should make that a surname is a derivative of
History or Hestler. Only one instance of Geisler is at that
last name but that is likely a transcription error or a
recording error because that first letter in the 1940 Census
look a little bit odd which is why people are like hey I
want to research this person. We get there. We find one
record and then we can't find anything else. So then we go
and we change the spellings and we find other thing. So now,
when we go back, it's actually said sun name not surname.
We'll fix that real quick. Um so now, we have to decide
should we merge the profiles because somebody else has done
some research on a lot of potential records that match my
family that of in question and that's how we build things
quickly over on FamilySearch and we do it free using
substances records. So, yes, I believe that other profiles
should be emerged. I've done videos about merging profiles
here on this channel. I'm not going to spend any time
emerging those together but the one thing I want you to make
sure that you do when you're researching census records is I
want you to keep trying those different spelling variations
and search strategies that I showed in the video there's two
videos about how to do online searches because you can get
frustrated thinking your ancestor isn't there but when
you start playing around with different names with wildcards
and different strategies then you can go ahead and find them
and not only that you might find them in the FamilySearch
FamilySea and then you just merge your person into the
profile that's already there and then you can continue
building. Now, as promised, it's time to talk about adding
those children into the tree once you have discovered that
they are deceased. So, we're going to go ahead and take this
Marcella Geisler although we have discovered that the
surname is really this one and we're going to go ahead and put
in this date of birth. I'm going to go ahead and correct
that information right there United States. She deceased and
I have a death date from another location.
Select the standard. I'm going to leave everything here
family interviews and that's good enough for now because
we're doing census research. So, create a new person. And
now, all of this information came over and I can bring over
this information just like I did with the parents. So, now,
this actually said Germantown which is different but I'm
going to go ahead and standardize subways and then,
when I come down, the reason statement from above will be
there. Now, if you log out and navigate away from this for any
reason, then, you're going to have to copy and paste the
reason statement from the profile that you saved it to
and then paste it over here and go ahead and click attach. Now,
Marcella has that census record attached to her. If I know
these other individuals are deceased, I can go ahead and
add them here, make whatever changes I need to as well. So,
one of the things I like about building your tree on
FamilySearch and searching those census records along the
way is it makes searching for the next person's Census
Records super easy and again, free. So, I can click on
Marcella and that will take me to her profile page and now
FamilySearch will start looking for census records for her
through the hints but you can also click search directly from
here and we can filter to collection and it will change
this over here on the side and then we could click all census
records and then filter all the results that we have to just
finding Marcella in the Census Records and remember you just
can keep changing all of those search strategies we talked
about in previous videos right here. So how is that a
step-by-step walk through with Modern Genealogy Records on
FamilySearch particularly the Census Records. Let me know if
you have more questions in the comments. Let me know if you
like this format. Just leave lots and lots of comments and
then be sure to go check out more videos on how to use
FamilySearch with the playlist above and the latest video down
here below. Today, I'm not going to do anything. Is it on
my slides ready? Um