Irish Census records are the most important record in researching a
family tree. From the 30's back to the first days of an independent
America are online. Census records allow you to trace when you family came
to America, whether the landed on Ellis Island or were murdered by the British
army during the
Revolution, the irish census record willl show you a piece of their lives.
Census records are now available on line and have transformed the
role of the
genealogist, whether amateur or pro, since their inception. The internet
and online census reports, allow you to utilise all govt. records at a
blink of an eye.
When going through census records, there are many things to
consider. One, have a good idea of different spelling of your family name. Many
surnames have had been Americanised to help the individuals blend into American society
with out
standing out.. Other names
were inadvertently changed by immigration officials making spelling
errors,
or who could not spell or pronounce the names involved. And many names simply
had multiple spellings that are considered correct, just consider Smith,
Schmidt, Smyth. Also people's hand writing can be hard to decipher, just
look at a doctors note, to see what I mean.
Make a list of all of the family names you are looking for, and all the information you have
concerning the ancestors you want to research further. Compile this
information in a database and keep it updated as you discover more
information.
After that, look at what states your ancestors may have lived
in. If
your ancestor was in New Jersey then they are the census records
that you must go for. If you cant find your ancestor in that state, then
look at neighbouring states, for their names in census records
Consider the time that your ancestor lived in, if they lived in the
1890's in New York, then these are the census records to look at. If the
ancestor, you are researching lived in the 1860's check out military
papers to see if they were drafted during the civil war
Researching your family tree, has never been more popular as a hobby,
genealogy has grown thanks to family tree websites and software freely
available on the net. So go for it and find out your family tree and look
at those census records.
