Finding migration, education and missing people using census data.

LegacyUser

Fred Turner said: I am a Consultant at the Edgewood, NM FHC. I am gathering more detail on members of more recent members of my family lines. My "Ford Lightbulb" might be old news to many, but after 6+ years of work it just dawned on me.

There is usually enough information on a census record to add persons not related to the family (like hired hands or blacksmith) to Family Tree. There is also other information like schooling, read/write, ethnicity, occupation, etc.

I have started adding an entry in "Other Information", that includes the data not specifically mentioned as options. This allows me to look at education, family movement, etc., without digging through my files. It also makes that info available to people who don't have it. Adding what appear to be unrelated family names, when there is enough information, may uncover missing relatives by marriage.

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: If your relative(s) lived in states that took their own census records, getting to those and using them can add a lot of valuable information.

For instance, a year enumeration was taken for Kansas and the Kansas Historical Society films have been digitized and are on Ancestry. Washington, while it was a territory took an enumeration every two or so years prior to getting statehood, so the 1889 enumeration can serve as a replacement for the 1890 Federal Census, which was essentially destroyed.

You'll probably need to do an internet search for state census records to find those for the state you are looking in, but the effort is well worth it in additional information about the family.