Your Number Please!

Another helpful item in the heading is the page number.  Not necessarily the one that was stamped but the one that was written when the page was originally copied. Sometimes it is called a sheet number.  In an effort to make things easier for us, the people who organize and provide these records for us sometimes group them into counties or towns.  Most of the time that is awesome, but occasionally enumerators would cross county or town borders.  If you think your ancestor lived in a place and you are reading through that census, and the last page is a full one, look around in the neighboring communities or even counties to see if another group starts with the next page number.

Nobody’s Perfect

I guess this is as good a time as any to remind ourselves that census enumerators were human.  Most did an awesome job, but some, especially before 1880, were not so great.  Some census takers never bothered with the date, others meticulously put it in the left column every morning.  Some census records go eight or ten pages without a written page number.  We’ll talk about this more when we get to names.  But don’t get discouraged!  Overall, the census provides us with amazing information about our ancestors and nation as a whole!

If research is just not for you, or life just has you too busy, there’s great news.  At Heroes of the Past we love research!  Contact us today to get started discovering your family’s history!