United States US Census 1860

MMPD-999

In the US Census of 1860, I am trying to locate a family in a specific town. The name of the town is Le Claire, in the County of Scott, state of Iowa. When I search the 1860 Census records, I look up Iowa, Scott, and select Le Clair Township. But all the records are blank. The pages are blank. The records for this town of Le Claire are missing. The other towns within Scott County, Iowa are there. The surrounding cities appear to be complete. It is just this one town, Le Claire Township, that is missing.

I am able to locate the records for Le Claire Township, Scott County, Iowa state on the Ancestry website. The pages do exist. The records are in the 1860 US Census on Ancestry.

Can we get an engineer at Family Search to see why the records for the town of Le Claire, Scott, Iowa are missing from the 1860 US Census?

Thank you.

Áine.ní.Donnghaile

Checking the 1860 census pages for Le Claire, Scott, Iowa, on Ancestry, they are not blank, but they are very dim - nearly impossible to read.

Some images are slightly more legible on FamilySearch; some are less so. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9B9V-N8K
You can also adjust the contrast and brightness to make the pages more legible.

This is the first page on Ancestry:

I don't see that FindMyPast has tried to index that township. Their images are often better.

SerraNola

@MMPD-999 It is true that we have many 1860 Census images that are not indexed, or indexed badly. I am not aware of any current attempt to improve the images and allow re-indexing, but engineering is aware of the problem. Sorry, for the inconvenience.

KSmith Ripper

I was advised by Support to use the Community about a similar problem: the John (Jno) Hollingsworth family in Lawrence County, Ohio, shows up just fine on the 1860 census on Ancestry, but FS tells me there's no record. Support said the census isn't indexed, but perhaps it's just that county? I don't want to take everyone's time w a stupid question, but how can FS not have a US census not under total control?

SerraNola

@KSmith Ripper

Update on the 1860 Census: As mentioned, the issue comes from illegible pages in the original filming. Improved scans were made, but an error prevents the new index from attaching, resulting in a “placeholder” index (often just one record labeled “illegible”). Some fixes have been made, handled one DGS at a time, so we may need to identify all affected records. Thanks for the heads up on Lawrence County!

Mark McKenzie_1

Strange that it is not a problem for all of the Townships in Lawrence County. Several seem to be just fine..

SerraNola

@KSmith Ripper I discussed this with engineering a few days ago and my team is making an effort to find as many of the affected films as possible and include them on a work item. If you find additional examples please let us know.