I can find James C and Hannah Smith on the 1850 Indiana census but when I try to attach them to my G

JOHN LIN EVANS

I can find James C and Hannah Smith on the 1850 Indiana census but when I try to attach them to my GGGrandmother, Lydia, the system can't find them. What should I do? Thanks

Dennis J Yancey

yes - but there are various "areas" (databases) within Familysearch

and it is important to understand that these different areas are, to a large degree, "disjoint" and separate

 

one area is the Family Tree where you are adding the family

another area is a database of primary records (where you found the census record)

When you do a search to add a person to a family tree it is looking to see if such a person may already exist in the family tree database

because it doesnt want to add a duplicate if the person already exists in Family Tree.

(in your case it did not find anything)

 

Family Tree is a database of PEOPLE (interlinked together as families)

 

the SEARCH Historical records area - is NOT really a database of people - rather it is a database of RECORDS.

 

so when you do a search before you add Lydias parents. It is not finding any matching entry - because there is no matching entry for Lydias parents as people in Family Tree (even though you did find them listed in a census record in a different part of the system.

 

so you need to ADD Lydia's parents in the famiy tree (they arent there now)

THEN once you add them - you can LINK them to the entry in the RECORD database (which points to a census record)

 

so one database is a list of PEOPLE

and another database is a list of RECORDS

and there are other databaseses such as a list of IMAGES, or a list of BOOKS, or varous other items

 

but when you are doing a search in Familytree and you dont find someone - it is because they are not yet in the PEOPLE database - though their name may appear on a RECORD item in the record database.

 

@X24mom X24mom​ 

@Carolyn Webber​ 

 

 

Dennis J Yancey

can you explain the exact steps that you are following in trying to attach them??

JOHN LIN EVANS

I went to Lydia Smith's person and went to add a parent. Then I put in James C with a 1792 Pennsylvania birth. It searched but did no find him. I then put in Hannah 1793 New Jersey birth and she was not found. I found all three on the 1850 Indiana census. Thanks, John