The U.S. federal census, on its face, does not appear to be the most intimate of records in which to get to know your ancestors. However, in addition to dishing out facts on their residence, relationships, occupation, and economic status, at times, it will inadvertently shed light on one's perceived identity. As they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and details on a census are in the hands of the enumerator! (Left to right) Nelson F. Hinman, Marie Hinman, Margaret (Miller) Hinman, Fanny Louise Hinman, Orlin Hinman, Ethel Hinman, Edith (Goddard) Hinman. Boone, Iowa. 1 Aug 1925. Photo privately held by Sandra Vallo. There's one particular enumeration that comes to mind when thinking about a 'document with personality' and that's the 1950 U.S. federal census. At the time it was recorded, my great grandmother, Ethel (Hinman) Eggenberger, was living with her sister, Fanny (Hinman) Stephenson, in Huntington Beach, Orange County, California. Both women were wido...
I've been trying to play some serious catch-up recently in my genealogy research, so one of my tasks has been to finally incorporate details from a specific page of the 1860 US federal census into my online family tree for my 2nd great grandfather, Christian, and his Eggenberger branch. While information on censuses is usually fairly straightforward and easy to extrapolate, this particular one has given me some extra grief, and I'll explain why. The census page I'm interested in is for sheet number 57 of Chippewa Township, Wayne County, Ohio, USA. Take a look at how it's displayed across the two most accessible genealogy sites: Ancestry.com FamilySearch.org On MyHeritage.com, you can't even find the record via search, as they do not allow page-by-page browsing and they were unable to index any of the residents on this page due to the poor digitized microfilm image. Oddly, I had an inkling that the original microfilmed image by NARA must have been of better quality,...