Not finding person in 1920 census search

Alex25292 · July 31

I searched for my grandfather in the 1920 census data through Ancestry and FamilySearch, but have not been able to find him. He died in 1921 and hadn't arrived in the U.S. for the 1910 census, so this would be the only national census in which he'd be counted and listed. I did find his name in a town directory with the surname badly misspelled. Is it possible the census may have missed him or the census wasn't taken in the town in which he resided? Are there other ways to search the 1920 census?

GFre · July 31

Hi @Alex25292. If the name was badly misspelled in the directory, that's probably a clue that the census taker misspelled it too.

One strategy you can try is looking up a neighbor's name. The directory may have some listed on the same street if you look by address. Once you find them on their 1920 census, you can visually scan that page and the one or so before and after it. If you don't see your grandfather, try again with a different neighbor.

You can also try searching for someone else who lived in the same household—a wife or child. Sometimes one person's first name was indexed more correctly over another. Also, look on the children's census records, as he might be living with or near them.

Another strategy is using an asterisk symbol—which is used as a wildcard. So, Thom* returns results of Thompson, Thomas, Thomson, etc. Try to think of how the name is pronounced and how someone might be inclined to misspell it. If there is a syllable that's clearer to understand, you might use a wildcard for the rest. For instance, for the surname Ferrari I might try F*r*.

If it's a small town, one last strategy is to leave the name out entirely in your search, relying on birth information and location of residence. If the system asks for a name, just enter in the wildcard (*). This still may give you far too many results, but you could slowly feed in parts of the name alongside the wildcards until something pops up.

If you provide us with his ID number, we'd be happy to take a look too.

Mark McKenzie_1 · August 1

@Alex25292 If you have a town directory for him, does it show an address? If so there are ways to use that in the census collection on Ancestry [e.g. as a keyword]

When searching the 1920 census [on Ancestry] for the town you found… you may have to go with just his given name, birth date/location and, if you have it, the birth location[s] of parents. You may end up needing to use 'Exact' for some of those. Don't forget, he may not be in the town you found so also include the County as one of your search options.

@GFre suggestion about finding neighbors is a good one. No guarantees, but it does sometimes work!

Hopefully your not dealing with a very large city and that you grandfather had a distinctive given name

Have you started a profile for him in the FamilyTree? If so, pass that along and you might get some help from others…

maryellenstevensbarnes1 · August 1

@Alex25292 — Start by giving his name in this forum with both the correct spelling and the misspelled name you found in the city directory and perhaps you will find he is already in Family Search or Ancestry - there might be others who can help

maryellenstevensbarnes1 · August 2

@Alex25292 I found a couple of records on Family Search that may be helpful; also a passenger list on Ancestry — please check the email env icon for a red dot for more information

GFre · August 3

@Alex25292, is this the enumeration map? If so, it looks like Curve Road would be district 187, Whiting Avenue would be 189.

Alex25292 · August 2

Thank you all so much. Good ideas for me to follow up on. I have tried using wildcards and I have started a profile on him. But some of the additional ideas sound promising, especially looking by address. I'm still trying to determine the correct surname. His first name is Guiseppe (Joseph) and the surname based on other records I have is Spiridigliozzi (or possibly Spiritigliozzi). It's possible, but I don't think likely that the Zs are Ss and/or ends in o rather than i. The 1920 town directory listed him as residing at 340 Whiting Avenue. The town is Dedham, Massachusetts. That's the address as well on my father's Jan 1919 birth certificate, so it's likely to be the one on the census. His 1917 draft card has the address 73 Curve Street, Dedham, MA, and his death record for March 1921 has the address 30 Curve Street. Unclear when the family moved from Whiting to Curve.

GFre · August 2

@Alex25292 With multiple moves, the neighbor strategy may not be reliable here. On John's 1919 birth record it looks like they were recorded at 140 Milton, but that could be typos for the Whiting address.

I did find one record of interest… However, it's missing their children, and his wife's age would've been recorded wrong too (40 vs 24). Hard to know if that's census taker errors, or it's just the wrong record altogether. The address is about a mile away from Whiting Avenue. Something to consider, anyway: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MX15-Q8S?lang=en

One other thing I noted, is that there was a person (maybe a relative?) with a similar name who lived in the same town. I didn't see them on the 1920 census either. When their son was born in 1921, they were living at 344 Whiting. They are on the 1930 census with their last name misspelled.

Mark McKenzie_1 · August 3

@Alex25292 Assuming I looked at same/similar town directory record you mention, I'm not all that sure it is the same person. Is this profile along the lines of what you understand from your family history?

Alex25292 · August 3

@Mark McKenzie_1 and @GFre — Mark, Yes, that is my grandfather. I have most of those records but you found one or two I didn't have, so thanks. I didn't have the birth registry of my uncle.

Gfre, What I find interesting is that you found a birth record for my dad John that is different from the certified birth record I received from the town of Dedham about a month ago. The addresses are different. The one I received says 340 Whiting Ave and the one you found says 140 Milton. I'm not sure what to make of that.

The person named Joseph Sup is no one I know. The other person you found is not my grandfather, but most likely a relative. I've seen his name come up in other searches I've done. You would think my grandfather's name would be unique, but there are a considerable number of Spiridigliozzi's living in the U.S. who originated from Pontecorvo, Italy. The surname is/was in the top three in the town. Because my grandfather died in 1921 and my grandmother married and moved to another town, we lost connection with this part of the family. But my dad always said he had cousins in Dedham.

However, What was helpful about looking at this is that I see is the date/ship he sailed to America is one I thought belonged to my grandfather. I had two ship listings for grandfather. I have a ship manifest with the same year, but it states May 3, 1911 on the S.S. Canopic rather than May 13 on the same ship. I thought maybe my grandfather came over twice. But the other one I have that states August 1913 must be the one that's correct.

Someone from a FB group I'm in suggested finding the Enumeration District (ED) number by viewing maps of the town for the 1920 census using a site built by someone named Steve Morse. And then go back to Ancestry or Family Search and look through census lists for that ED. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find the 1920 maps. But I'm going to research where I might locate those maps. https://stevemorse.org/census/unified.html

GFre · August 3

@Alex25292

Looks like on the birth record, they copied the wrong address? 140 Milton was where he was born, I think, but not where his parents lived: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QHV-1352-3VPY?view=fullText&keywords=Spiridiglosi%2CSpeditinzo%2CSpirtigos&lang=en&groupId=

Also, I'm glad the other record was able to help narrow down which manifest was correct!

Mark McKenzie_1 · August 3

fwiw… The Dedham City Directory for 1920 on Ancestry shows 73 Curve occupied by John Capozzi

Alex25292 · August 4

@GFre, On my hardcopy of the birth record the place of birth was very light so I didn't even notice that it said 140 Milton Street. I can contact the Dedham Museum and Archive to see if they have records showing what was at that location in Jan 1919. Perhaps it was a friend or relatives home.

Mark, I'll make a visit to the library to follow up on Ancestry for the things mentioned above.

Yes, @Gfre, this is the enumeration map: "is this the enumeration map?" Thanks! This may be just what I need.

Alex25292 · August 4

I searched streets and names in the census lists for ED 189 and the streets for ED 187. Unfortunately, I did not find my grandfather and his family listed. There are only five EDs in the town, so I'll probably go back and look at every name listed for the town just in case he and the family lived at yet another address. Thanks. This was still a huge help to me.

Mark McKenzie_1 · August 4

The 140 Milton sure is 'odd' based on this Google Maps view

Mark McKenzie_1 · August 4

@Alex25292 I'm not all that sure about the 'town directory' info you have. If it's the same as what I looked over, I feel it may be for a different person.

GFre · August 4

@Mark McKenzie_1 The addresses are actually quite close to each other. Just a difference of Street vs Road.

@Alex25292 I'm glad we were of some help. I wish you luck in finding them on the census. If there's anything else we can help with, let us know!

Alex25292 · August 4

Thanks! Appreciated the help!

Not finding person in 1920 census search

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