TURNER-L Archives

From: Tim Struble <>
Subject: [TURNER] Galey Turner
Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2002 12:25:37 -0700

Pam,

In my research for all of my family members the one thing that I have
noticed is the inconsistency and the mistakes made by census takers etc.
When I looked further I found that information given to the census
taker was not always given by family members. Sometimes neighbors were
the source of the information.

A lot of times the ages were "guesstimates" . If they asked the people
what year they were born or what month they got a better answer.
Nicknames can throw a person off also. I use my nickname for
everything except legal documents.

For years I discarded certain census because of an age that was written
or a nickname. Should have known better. After running around a tree
chasing my tail I realized I had the right person. What you need to do
now is find other types of documents that can support your finds. These
are the type that can either tell you to keep the information or throw
them away. Will's, property information, etc.

I have a Person in my line as most people do that had such a strange
long name. I looked everywhere and never found him. Then one day I
took a different look and just took the initials for his first name and
one of his first middle names (he had 3). I then went to a search
engine like google and typed it in. I was shocked to see so much
information come up on him. Then I found information that he went by
the name of Ked. Ked was not even part of his name. When I started
looking for Ked I found more information.

What I guess I am saying is that if he looks like a duck, walks like a
duck, quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.

Census takers were people that were hired because they could read and
write. It did not mean they understood accents of people that spoke to
them. It did not mean that they knew how to spell names. It did not
mean they could hear very well. A lot of people knew how to pronounce
their names but could not spell it. Some people spelled their names
according to how their parents told them it was spelled. I have a
Casper Zurn who arrives in this country in 1760 from Germany. This last
name goes through many changes each generation. Zirn, Zein, Ziurn,
Sain, Saine, Sainer, Sane, and in some places it was Hirn.

You just need to be patient. I know that when I am not patient I miss
obvious things. Start thinking like a detective. You will eventually
find the family it just takes work. It never seems easy. You will be
surprised how things start falling into place.

Vickie

This thread:

• [TURNER] Galey Turner by Tim Struble <>