Contagious Genealogy: A Pandemic

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,...

  MAY 23, 2021 I’ve been having a lot of new correspondence with distant cousins ever since this year’s RootsTech conference, because I made sure to make good use of the Family Connect feature. Week 20: Cousin Bait My 2nd great grandfather, Christian Eggenberger, was born 29 April 1838 in Switzerland, but the first written record I have recording his existence is the 1860 U.S. federal census, when he was already 22 years old and living in Chippewa, Wayne County, Ohio. 1860 United States Federal Census , population schedule, Chippewa, Wayne, Ohio, Christian Eckenberger household, p. 386, line 3, online database, Ancestry ( https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 23 May 2021), Provo, UT, USA; NARA microfilm publication M653, 1,438 rolls. 1860 United States Federal Census , index, population schedule, Chippewa, Wayne, Ohio, Christian Eckenberger household, p. 386, line 3, online database, Ancestry ( https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 23 May 2021), Provo, UT, USA. This census is not onl...