Caveat lector!

On the Who Do You Think You Are? episode first broadcast in Canada on Sunday, July 25, 2022 the show focused on Stephen Hopkins, an ancestor of Allison Janney. In that episode they used the "U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s" collection found on Ancestry as the hook to start the story.

Right away the title of the collection should set off alarm bells in a good researcher's brain for it is an index. Indexes themselves are not a bad thing for they quite often point us to the source material and can act as a holding citation in our research until we can find and read the source document. Yet how many of us actually pay attention to details recorded in the index?

Before looking at the "U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s" collection on Ancestry I just want to note that the source citation information displayed on the computer Ms. Janney was using differs slightly from what I see on my own desktop. Nothing major though, just information displayed on different tabs or in a different order. On the show Ms. Janney was looking at the "Citation details" tab of the record to read the details of the place, Bermuda, and year, 1609-1910, concerning Stephen Hopkins. Here is the same information found in the "Ancestry record" tab.

Screen capture of the Ancestry record tab for Stephen Hopkins arriving 1609-1610 in Bermuda from the Source citation for U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500-1900s found on Ancestry.

In this case there really is some great information found in Ancestry's source citation. We learn the arrival years, 1609-1610, and the place, Bermuda. Just like what Ms. Janney read. Yet what is even more important for us as researchers is we learn that the information has been extracted from Terry Tucker's book "Bermuda - Unintended Destination, 1609-1610" published by Island Press Ltd in Bermuda in 1978. The Ancestry record even tells you that you are looking at persons aboard the Sea Venture which was wrecked off Bermuda. If you could find a copy of Terry Tucker's book then you could see if there are included source citations to follow up on. You could even check for other documents and books at archives, libraries, and museums about the Sea Venture and it's unexpected stop at Bermuda.

However, not all the extracts found in the "U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s" collection are as good. This is where "caveat lector" comes into play.

We need to rewind just a bit...

When I first ran into this collection a decade ago I was looking for information about my 3rd great-grandfather Luke McMullen who settled in the North Elmsley area of what is now Lanark County, Ontario, Canada. I had already found Luke and his family in the 1851 and 1861 censuses of Canada West. So I knew had had arrived before 12 Jan 1852, the official date of the 1851 census of Canada West (yes, the 1851 census of Canada West took place in 1852). I even knew that his oldest daughter was baptized in 1845 in Perth, Lanark County, Canada West so he should have been in Canada by that date.

Screen capture of the "U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500-1900s" collection record for Luke McMullen arriving 1871 in Ontario, Canada found on Ancestry.

Yet, as we can see from the above screen capture for Luke McMullen's entry in the "U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s" collection, it states he arrived in 1871 in Ontario, Canada.

What gives?

This is where, as researchers, we actually have to read the details in and about the record and not just blindly and quickly click on accept before moving on to the next record like a relay race.

First of all, for this collection always read the source bibliography. In this case we learn that the information is from Bruce S. Elliott's "Index to the 1871 Census of Ontario: Lanark" published by the Ontario Genealogical Society in 1992. Right away a yellow flag should be raised in your mind. We have an index pointing to an index. So we will probably want to look at the source documents that Mr. Elliott used to create his index: the 1871 Census of Ontario for Lanark County.

The next place to look on the record from Ancestry is the information in the "Annotation" section. Here we learn that the information concerning the arrival and place is actually the date and place of the census. 

What the <bleep>!

It seems that this record from the "U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s" collection for Luke McMullen has nothing to do with when the person actually arrived in Ontario, Canada. All it tells us is that the person was enumerated in Ontario, Canada in 1871. Now some of the censuses of Canada do include a date of immigration but the 1871 census of Canada isn't one of them.

Even more challenging for those using the various censuses of Canada is that, unlike the United States or England enumerations, the census location recorded is supposed to be based on the official residence or abode of the person and not necessarily where they were on that date. I touch about that challenge in my post "Annie Leontine Chipman and a Census Mystery".

This is why it is always, Always, ALWAYS, ALWAYS important for us to read the details about how a record in an index entry on any genealogy site, not just Ancestry, was created. This is even more important when an index has drawn its material from multiple source like what we find for the "U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s" collection. 

Then we need to follow those bread crumbs to the source documents. Sometimes it may be going from one index to another index until we actually can find and view the original document, whether it be in a paper or digital format. 

So remember:

Caveat lector!

To All the Mothers on My Direct Line

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the women in my direct line that brought forth and nurtured their children.Without them I wouldn't be here today.

Jill Frances McMullen, Winifred Violet Warrener, Frances Mary Howe, Elizabeth Murdoch, Henrietta Jane Whitfield McGregor, Annie Elizabeth Starr Chipman, Margaret Stewart, Isabella McCulloch, Mary Ann Kay, Henrietta Jane Whitefield, Eliza Ann Wells, Catherine McKinnon, Maria Elizabeth Jenkins, Sarah Eliza Starr, Margaret Orr, Janet Campbell, Mary Smith, Isabella Birnie, Ann Rudsdale, Ann Pape, Susan Fair, Florence Bardge, Ann Fraser, Mary Foley, Jane Innes, Ann McDonald, Sarah E Pickel, Maria Waring Little, Sophia Araminta Cogswell, Thamar Troop, Mary McEwan, Margaret Houston, Margaret Pettigrew, Eleanor Maynard, Jane Philips, Sarah Howell, Hannah Baxter, Elizabeth Sherwood, Mary Ann Fowler, Mary McGown Dickie, Elizabeth Beckwith, Esther Fairweather, Jemima Sawtelle, Lydia Parker, Ann Osborne, Lydia Huntington, Katherine Chipman, Jean Allen, Elizabeth Handley, Margaret Homes, Hope Howland, Elizabeth Young and Elizabeth Tilley.

There are so many more yet I don't know their names but I will keep striving to find them.

Kenneth Norman McMullen 1947 - 2014

In Memory of

Kenneth Norman McMullen

10 Apr 1947 - 25 Jan 2014

Goodbye Uncle Ken, you will be missed by all those that have been touched by your kindness and love. 

 May your travels in the "undiscovered country from which no visitor returns" bring you peace.

 

A young and happy Ken

Ken McMullen (left) being presented with the Premier’s
Agri-Food Innovation Excellence by MPP Dave Levac, 19 May 2009

Coming To Your Census

With the advent of the digitization and indexing of the census pages from Canada, England, Ireland, Scotland and United States we have been spoiled in comparison to what researchers even ten years ago had to go through to find ancestors and relatives. Now we can visit many online sites that have made available those images and indexes. Some of those sites are free while others may require paying a monthly or annual fee to access the records. Even some of those pay sites may be freely available at your local archive, library or Family History Center.

Yet even with the indexes that are available some family members seem to be impossible to find in a census. There are many possible reasons they can't be found. Some of them are:

• the hand writing by the enumerator is atrocious
• the original microfilm was of poor quality
• the original pages were damaged
• the enumerator had no clue on how the name was spelled by the family
• the person of interest has left the country or has died
• the person's name may have changed due to marriage or due to "legal" issues

So what can you do to find them?

Some possible suggestions are:

• Search for the household as a group but leave off their surname. 
• Search for the youngest member of the household at the time of the census. Usually their age will be the most accurate.
• Don't include the age or birth year of the person. For some reason it is not uncommon for women to not be exactly truthful when answering questions about their age.
• Restrict the search to only a specific district, sub-district or town where they are believed to be living at the time of the census. This may reduce the number of possible names to look at to a manageable size.
• If all else fails a page by page examination of the digitized images of an area may be necessary. Sort of an old school/new school approach.

For example, I was looking for the family of Arthur Finnie and his wife Elizabeth Ann (nee McMullen) yet I couldn't initially find them in the 1921 Census of Canada that has been made available on Ancestry. In this case I knew that they probably lived in Windsor and most likely had their 3 year old daughter Margaret living with them. So for the search parameters on Ancestry I specified the following details:

First & Middle Name: Elizabeth Ann
Birth Year: 1881
Birth Location: Ontario, Canada
Spouse: Arthur
Child: Margaret
Keyword: Windsor  [Exact match checked]
Gender: Female

Note that in this case I left off the surname for Elizabeth Ann Finnie but I did include her known birth year. The first match returned was a transcription for the household of Arthur Francise with wife Elizabeth, daughter Margaret and lodger Thompson Officer.

This is why being able to examine the image of the census record in question is so important.

1921 Census of Canada, Ontario, district 77, sub-district 41, Windsor, p. 17, dwelling 182, family 193, household of Arthur Finnie; RG 31; digital images, Ancestry.com, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com/ : accessed 17 Nov 2013); citing Library and Archives Canada.

Looking at the image, at least to my eyes, the surname isn't "Francise" but is "Finnie", the family I am looking for.

So don't give up when searching for those family members apparently missing from the census. You may just need to be a little creative in your searches.