Hi there! I'm Lisa Lisson, and I'm passionate about helping people like you discover their ancestors and expand their family tree without feeling overwhelmed or uncertain about the next steps.
Did your ancestor even answer the census?
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Hi, Reader, A census record looks like a fact. Name. Age. Birthplace. Written neatly in a column. But every one of those answers came from someone standing in a doorway, talking to a stranger with a pen. Maybe it was your ancestor. Maybe it was a twelve-year-old. Maybe it was the neighbor, because nobody was home and the census taker had forty more houses to get through before dark. I have to wonder about the story behind my grandmother being enumerated with the neighbor's name in the 1940 census! Right age, right family members, just the wrong name! Census takers made mistakes. too. That turns a "wrong" census entry into a conversation. And once you read it that way, you start noticing things. Who answered. What they guessed at. What they left out. This week's genealogy read: In this post, dig deeper into the 1910 federal census, exploring its unique details and how they can unlock fascinating stories about your ancestors. We’ll also explore the process of analyzing census records, which applies to all federal censuses, not just the 1910 census.
📅 RootsTech 2027 registration is openRootsTech is the world's largest family history conference, hosted by FamilySearch, with hundreds of classes for beginners and experienced researchers. It runs March 4–6, 2027. You can attend in person in Salt Lake City or join online. I'll be attending in-person and speaking again this year. 🙂 More on my sessions soon. If you're coming to Salt Lake City, I'd love to meet you. Register for RootsTech HERE. This week...Pull one census record you've already saved and ask: Who was standing in that doorway? Happy researching! Lisa P.S. What do you do when the census stops giving you answers? I've been working on that. You'll see it first, next week. |
Are You My Cousin? Newsletter
Hi there! I'm Lisa Lisson, and I'm passionate about helping people like you discover their ancestors and expand their family tree without feeling overwhelmed or uncertain about the next steps.
Hi, Reader, With Labor Day coming up, I’ve been thinking about work, specifically, the work our ancestors did. When I look at my own family tree, I see a lot of farmers. Farmer. Farmer. Farmer. Not particularly exciting at first glance. 🙂 But an ancestor’s occupation can tell us much more than simply how they earned a living. Their work could influence where they lived, why they moved, who they interacted with and even the types of records they left behind. And sometimes, understanding why an...
Hi, Reader, Apparently August still triggers the part of my brain that thinks I need new school supplies. I haven’t actually gone back to school in quite a few years, but give me a good pen, a fresh legal pad and an excuse to wander through the office-supply aisle, and I’m happy. So after last week’s look at school records, I thought we’d continue the back-to-school theme with a different question: What are the “school supplies” I actually use as a genealogist? I’m fairly minimalist when it...
Hi, Reader, Where I live, “back to school” is a little complicated. We have traditional-calendar schools, year-round schools, modified year-round schools…basically, somebody is always going back to school. But August still feels like back-to-school season. And for genealogists, it’s a good reminder to ask a question we often overlook: What records did our ancestors leave behind when they went to school? School records can be surprisingly useful especially when you’re trying to place a family...