The Confusing Census...or A New Branch of My Howe Line

Hopefully you periodically go through your primary lines looking to see what you might have missed in what the records you already have found or to see what records you might be missing. In my case I was looking at my Howe line for possible new hints from the public tree I have on Ancestry. I had the usual completely incorrect hints (e.g. in a census years after they had died) but one of the hints for George B. Howe pointed to another public tree.

Just to put your mind at ease, I don't link to other trees since they are often (although not always) poorly documented or just plain wrong. However, I always look at those trees to see what they might have in terms of records or other clues that can advance my research. I have discovered many unknown to me branches of my primary lines through reviewing these other public trees on Ancestry.

This other tree in addition to the names I had included a son Charles Wallace Howe. I only had the daughter Carra G. Howe in my tree. Could I have missed a complete branch of the family? This wouldn't be the first time this has happened to me and I actually enjoy making the connections since it means I need to re-examine what I've missed in the first case.

In looking at my master database¹ I had George listed as absent in the 1851 census of New Brunswick with him next appearing in the 1900 Federal census of the United States. Looks like I missed finding him in the years between those dates. But now I have several names to help me find him in the census enumerations: George (born about 1833), his wife Margaret [nee Lawson] (born about 1844), daughter Carra (born 1864), and possibly a son Charles.

I started my usual search on Ancestry focusing on the 1871 census of Canada and only one search result stood out and that was for a George V. Howe born in England about 1833.

Top search result from Ancestry for George B. Howe, born 1833 in New Brunswick, with wife Margaret, son Charles, and daughter Carra.

I took a look at the image of the census as provided by Ancestry and this is what I saw:

1871 census of Canada, New Brunswick, district 174, sub-district A-1, Saint John, p. 2, dwelling 4, family 5, George V Howe family; RG 31; digital images, Ancestry.com, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com/ : accessed 10 Apr 2018); citing Library and Archives Canada microfilm C-10372.

It looks like the right family but it is "George V" not "George B". The wife is "Marget A" but I have seen on numerous occasions Margaret written as "Marget" or many other variations in census and other records. As for that first "English" that is in the column for "Country or Province of Birth". This is where looking at the page as a whole becomes important. It seems that the enumerator was a bit confused when filling out his form since other families have "Scotch" or "Irish" written then crossed out and corrected to state "N/S", "Scotland", and "Ireland".

This definitely looks like the right family. The ages are a bit off but that is not a big surprise. As for the "V" instead of a "B", that could be attributed to the enumerator not hearing the letter correctly.So what can I use to make sure this is the correct family? I already have Carra documented in my tree same with George's wife Margaret Lawson. What about the possible children Charles W. and Laura A.?

On the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick site I searched for civil records using the name Charles Howe with a middle initial of W. I came across two records of particular interest:

• marriage of Charles Wallace Howe, son of George Baxter and Margaret Ann Howe, to Phoebe Jane Beers, daughter of Annie Beers.
• death of Charles W. Howe, son of George R Howe and Annie Lawson, husband of Phoebe J. Howe.

This looks very promising. What about Laura A.? This gets even more interesting. I don't find a Laura A. Howe in the New Brunswick in a search of the New Brunswick Vital Statistic from Government Records. I do see a Laura Sophia Howe listed as a mother for Harold Ottis Hinch, born 1880, in the Late Registration of Births database. In 1942 Laura Sophia Hinch is residing in Trail, British Columbia, Canada. But is this "my" Laura?

In the Daniel F. Johnson's New Brunswick Newspaper Vital Statistics I do come across his extract from the Watchman newpaper published on 14 Apr 1877 in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada for a marriage for Laura S. Howe:

m. (St. John) city, 11th inst., by Rev. F.H. Almon, William E. HINCH / Laura S. HOWE both of St. John.

I still can't say Laura S. Howe and Laura A. Howe are the same person. However, if Laura S. Hinch lived in British Columbia in 1942 maybe she also died in British Columbia.

A search of the BC Archives Genealogy database brings up the death of Laura Sophia Hinch in 1947 in Vancouver. Even better, there is an image of her registration of death. Note who are listed as her parents. Apparently the same married couple as found in the 1871 census where Laura S. Howe is found.

British Columbia, Canada B.C. Archives,  (Death Certificates, British Columbia Archives, Victoria),  1947-09-002837 (1947), Laura Sophia Hinch; B.C. Archives B13193.

From the death registration it does seem that the Laura Sophia Howe in the marriage notice and the late registration of birth of her son Harold Ottis Hinch is the same person as the Laura A. Howe in the 1871 census.

It looks like the 1871 census had a few interesting errors in it from a genealogical point of view but there were enough details that I could confirm it was the right family with a bit of genealogy research. Time to research and document a new (to me) branch of my Howe family tree.

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1. The tree on Ancestry isn't my master tree, it is a "cousin-bait" tree. My master database is held in my Legacy Family Tree database on my computer and is backed up several different ways.