Using the 1910 US Census

I found out a little something I'd like to talk about for a while today.
It all relates to the 1910 census.

So I was looking around for some relatives on the census data that is available on familysearch.org.  I did get lucky.  One of the reasons I was looking around at census data is to see what they might have put down for locations of birth for a great- grandfather.  And It turns out I was also looking for something that might show up on his first wife and the fact no one seems to have recorded my grand-aunt.

So as I got a hit on the 1910 census I was ecstatic.  I had the person(s) in questions and was jumping for joy.  I now could put the unrecorded grand-aunt in the system at new.familysearch.org.  But as always I found while looking into multiple census records that the spelling on the name could be in question.  It was spelled different on the 1910 census then the 1920 census.

So in my joy I sent the image off to my father and step-mother a very good genealogist and family history person.  She stumbled upon something that took my a while to process.  Turns out on the 1910 census they included a column by which a mother could list her total number of children and another column for how many were still alive.  Appears this was due to the Spanish flu that was going around the globe at that time.  It helped to see how may people/children may have been victims of the flu or had died early.

This information does not appear to be present on the 1920 census.  But, because of this we were able to located information regarding a child that died in infancy that as far as I know no one knew about.

I'm going to include an image of the census for the part of Ogden, Utah that matters to me. 

This might just spur you on to find out if you have a lost relative listed in the census.  In reality they provide a variety of very useful information in the census.  Mainly, you see the country/state of origin/birth, information on whether the father/mother are of foreign origin (sometimes it give the country), then things like how old, how long married, language or education information etc.

Census data can point us in the right direction to find other supporting documents for our not so distant relatives.  In some cases you can even see the migration of a family across the United States due to the locations of births of some children.

There is a vast array of information out there and we just need to tap into it.  Some of these ancestors are just waiting to be found.

But, some pragmatic people might say - "why bother doing all this work so you can finally baptize your deceased relatives?  So many people lived that have no record we'll never find them all."

Good point.  We may not find them all today or even in the next few years.  But, as we see how the plan works - that everyone will have the opportunity to have their saving ordinances completed, we will also see that God has not forgotten us.  He loves all his spirit children whether there are records for them or not.  He know us all by name and has not forgot even a one.  This people is something to shout from the roof tops to the whole world.

Buaidh - NO - Bas