ARIZARD-L Archives

Archiver > ARIZARD > 2006-07 > 1151733613


From: Ellen Reesh <>
Subject: RE: 1870 Census - I Found Them
Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2006 23:00:13 -0700


Hi List,
An almost Happy Fourth of July (will be my 41st anniv. too).
I found my Mack Muncy family in Franklin Township, went page by page and
there on pg 11 was an almost un readable name because of the very bad
handwriting but it started with an M and the first name was Mc and wifes
name was Matilda and all the names of the children were right all the
ages and birthplaces matched up with what I have from other census. So
it had to be them.

I then went back to the main 1870 index look-up page, and entered just
Matilda's name, Arkansas, Izard Co., Franklin township and two popped
up, one who was born in NC and one born in TN; a Matilda MEMUREY.

And sure enough when I clicked on the Memurey name it took me to that
page 11 image. I blew up the image 200% and could see how the
transcriber could come up with that name given the handwriting of the
census taker.

So this is my tip of the day. Use a different family members first name.
[one that is unusual would be best, John, James, Edward, Elizabeth, or
Mary would probably be to many hits] Then go to each image and check
it out. Some of those census takers didn't write very well or know how
to spell so the transcribers have had to guess at what they wrote the
best they could.

Happy Hunting, Ellen



This thread: