This is wonderful!! I started doing this with my moms family in the boot heel of MO starting with the 1900 census and working backwards first and eventually forward. However, I kept seeing so many surnames I recognized, I stopped and am now doing the entire county for all of the censuses. This is saving SO much time!! In the end it will benefit me AND tons of other people!!
Absolutely awesome information!!! I love how you show us to do filters on Excel because I did that before at work, but not in the past 5 years and it's so easy the way you explained it. Thank you so much. Now I'm going to do this spreadsheet for all my peeps! I'll be done about 2095! lol But seriously, thanks for being so clear in your explanations of things we might not use everyday or forgotten how to do!
I always check the neighbors. Found the gr gr grandmother, mother to my illegitimate gr grandfather. We had not knows about him until he went to live with his father at age 10. We suspect the parents would not let them marry. She was a neighbor. My most puzzling ancestor is a James Brown, Born Canada and worked on a ship. Shipping was a big industry on that river. Lived St Lawrence Co NY 1820, 1830 then followed the Mormons west and died in Illinois. HIs daughter my ancestor was raised by fellow Mormons who had treked to Illinois also. But the puzzler is that I have 17 DNA matches with a Brown family in VA. Ancestry is suggesting they are the family of this James Brown. You have to be careful what Ancestry suggests. I think most likely I am related by way of a different Brown family in another areaof my tree. And that family was from VA, but Ancestry did not relate them that way. PUzzled by this.
There are rare occasions that Ancestry has not indexed people on the census page. I've seen it for people in my tree at least twice maybe more. So It would probably be useful to check to see if at least the heads of households are indexed on each page before entering the information into a spreadsheet. Or at the very least keep in mind that while Ancestry is amazing it's not perfect, so you might have to be extra vigilant at times.
Never thought to do this for Census records to find "related" persons in this way. Thank you for the insight, will help much with my research. Every day is a new day to learn :-)
Day before yesterday I was able to break through a more than one-hundred year old mystery. I used the Ancestry Thru-lines following my paternal line with the last name and state for my GG last name Jones (of course!). I then reviewed my matches and began to wild card attached their trees to my own and kablam! I know know who my GGG is and found the family in Panola County, MS. I am able to see faces of people who have been phantoms to me. I'm trying to fit some other pieces together so it's still a work in progress.
This copy and pasting doesn't work in Firefox browser (everything converts to one column), but it works exactly as you describe in Chrome. This is AMAZING, Connie. I'm not a slouch when it comes to Excel, but you taught me a couple new tricks. The whole FAN searching has new life. Thank you! Thank you!
Thanks Annette. I thought it was my MacBook OS that didn't work. I was thinking I had to use Windows OS (and I don't like Windows). With my MacBook, I was using Firefox and as you have observed, Firefox was the problem. I was able to do Connie's trick using Chrome. Thank You! Thank You! Now, I can work on my MacBook where I am more comfortable.
@@GenealogyTV I was going to ask you but I found Annette's comments first. Ha Ha! I saved another dead end. I know that neither Apple nor Microsoft was going to help me. The Internet is where the useful support is. Thanks to you especially Connie - this was a particularly useful video. 6 Stars!
Annette, this used to work in Firefox but I don't know at which update it stopped working. I also use Libre & thought it was Libre that wasn't working. After several frustrating attempts, I went on to other genealogy probs. But I often review Connie's videos, and this time, I read ALL the comments. That's now my MO when I watch genealogy vids bc the community is so so helpful. I've installed Chrome, it works & I'm going to hop back-and-forth between Chrome & Firefox since all of my bookmarks are in Firefox. Connie (Genealogy TV) - thanks for the update. I review your vids often bc each time I pick up or understand more or am at the stage in my genealogy that you're addressing. Thanks to you and the community at large!
Made the first mistake in the book, started at page 7 and tried to insert previous pages before it in the spreadheet. Bah. I am using LibreOffice and it works nearly the same, but I discovered that if you are on a page, and click into the bottom section, and then right click and draw from the top left box down to the bottom right to select those cells, then CTRL-C and do the paste special into the spreadsheet, you don't get all the bumph at the top. And next trick, on Ancestry move to the next page and the table at the bottom is already highlighted so just CTRL-C anywhere on the page to copy and then use the paste special into the spreadsheet. Much faster. But thank you for this trick. PS just discovered that there is more than one 'book' for Llanelli and I did the wrong one first.
When filtering, you can also just type the name in the search as opposed to scrolling to find. This is awesome. Great idea can’t wait to utilize this on my research.
Tip If you want your page to look a little neater, more compact reduce the long name, for example, Dwelling Number can be changed to Dwelling # or Dwell #, Family Number to Fam #. Reduce anything that is larger than the information below it will have a much more narrow row for a single-digit answer below. For longer titles at the top, you can add a row below the description so you could put half of the description on the top line and the rest below which will reduce the column to a much thinner column.
I have two sources for my great grandmother. One is the marriage license where she is recorded as born in 1878 no month as Mary Ann Richid married in Independence County Arkansas to Noah Thomas born in Independence County Arkansas also in 1878. They were married in 1898. My grandmother was born in 1900 February 11. The other was the death certificate of my grandmother died in1965 in Lee county Arkansas. Her mother was listed as Mary Ann Richards born in Arkansas, Father as Noah Thomas born in Arkansas. No other records exist that I can find with all three together or even two of them together. My grandmother was living as a ward of a family in the 1910 census and Noah Thomas as a widow both in Jackson County Arkansas but not together . Any ideals where to look? Noah Thomas was easy as I found him from birth to death in a few hours. Mary Ann Richid, Richets ,Richards ,or Richardson seems to disappear. I don't think she is a Ricketts as I don't have DNA linking me to any Ricketts.
I would look at the marriage and see if they were married in a church. If so, there might be church records. Look for churches within walking or horse ride of where they lived before cars. There might be birth registries. Look at all the census records, 5-10 pages before and after your ancestor to see if there is other family living nearby. Research all family you know of extensively. There might be clues in other family member records. Create research notes in Chronological order, offline. Transcribe everything. She died in 1965, there might be surviving burial records at the cemetery. They will likely have more info. Land? Maps? Tax records? SSDI?
Thanks great info, but if you would have keep the woman on the list you would have seen Joshua looked to be with Rebecca and Exum with Malinda don’t know if their both married but look to be. Now mike is a little out of age range and living in the same dwelling as Joshua. I would research George first.
I have a relative with little to no info. And then In the 1920 census when he’s 46 is the last time he’s seen no death certificate no marriage certificate no anything he just disappears or was killed 🥺
Agreed, I learned so much from this video, thank you! I followed along and did this with you. FYI- someone may have already discussed this but I did want to mention that in the 1870 Census for an infant the census taker put 4/12 for 4 months old in July. It downloaded as born in April but there is also a column that asked for month born that has February listed. Just might want to check to correct the month. Thanks again!
Although 10 images is sensible. If you can you should do the whole neighborhood. I see on census where they skip a house on one page and don't record it till they reach the last page.
Thank you for the excel spreadsheet tips! Question maybe you can help with! I have over 19000 hints on Ancestry, is there a good way to go through them?
Thank you! Excel also lets you filter and/or sort by the shading color and/or the font color you use. Hope this gives you more options when you're looking at the data.
Self taught Excel & use Excel regularly in my family history research, however you have given me another avenue to use spreadsheets in solving some of my brick walls. I'm looking forward to using this trick. I have been doing my research for 31 years but new to this site due to COVID isolation & because our Family History Centre is still closed which I am a Volunteer of. Thank you Constance for waking up my zest for researching my family history again. Cheers from Down under.
This might be a way to find a 1 year old baby in the 1830 census and an 11 year old in the 1840 census. I know where she was born and where she might have been in 1840. She was living with an uncle in 1840, but don't know if he was paternal of maternal. Hope the odds are in my favor.
@@GenealogyTV Thank you. I'm going to need it. The town in the 1830 census where she was born has 501 head of households. It's going to take some work.
I followed this step by step, in your case you had a last name to go by, but what if you don't have a name to go by? I suspect my "great grandfather" was either adopted or his BF was someone other that what's on his birth cert. Adoption is where I'm leaning as I'm not finding direct connections to either his dad's (Hammond) or his mom's (Sortor) side of the family. Those I do show to be connected to them are also connected to another line (Turple) who I do have a lot of connections with. P.S. I have tested with both 23andme as well as Ancestry and uploaded to all the other sites.
Karen there are lots of strategies you can try. Start with the F.A.N. Club. What is F.A.N. Club Research for Genealogy and Family History? th-cam.com/video/pXODnErWXFw/w-d-xo.html
Hi Connie - I’m just catching up with this video and don’t know if you answer questions from old ones, but I figured I’d try. I’ve been looking for my paternal grandfather’s father for over 10 years - that is, since I was first able to access all the census data that show that the family story was a fabrication. Ack! My grandfather was born in England in 1888. I have a full brother, and he got a Y-chromosome test via FamilyTree, up to the 111 level. At this time, it’s too expensive to get the “Big Y” test. The results are scattered as to surnames. There are a couple that are slightly more frequent - one of which shows up around the birthplace of the generation older than my great-grandmother, who was born quite a distance away. But I’m keeping it in mind. My grandfather’s original middle name is a surname, as was common, and it’s not a family name among his mother’s relatives. So I’ve been taking that as a big clue. His birth registry entry seems falsified, as the US immigration and other records here have been. In fact, it’s possible that my grandfather’s mother my be an aunt or cousin. But I’m sticking with her as the bio mom for now. (They were very poor, and she was unwed, so unless she was paid to raise him, she wouldn’t have just taken him on. Her own father abandoned her mother when she was a teen, so they had a tough time of it.) I’ve slowly been researching the family name, seeking age-appropriate men who might have lived in or near the same city, or ones who might have been “travelers,” aka traveling salesmen or similar. On Ancestry, we have a tantalizing few cousin matches with that middle name in their trees. Alas, not enough people make their trees available. Still, a few have popped up in the 20-40 Cm range, which is pretty good for this many generations on. Alas, my father passed before I thought to test him. He has no brothers. A first cousin on my father’s sister’s side passed unexpectedly, and we aren’t in contact with his sister or her kids. Unfortunately. And since I don’t know what cousins to ask on the mystery great-grandfather’s side, DNA has to be trusted to luck. I’m trying to work up the courage to contact the larger DNA matches to ask about their families. It’s a tricky topic, obviously. I want to try this census method, but need to ask: the censuses in England are done in the “1” years. So I can do 1881 (6 years prior to conception) and 1891 (4 years after conception). I know most people didn’t move around as much then as we do today. But I’m wondering about whether searching for city directories closer to the conception year might not be as helpful in this case. I don’t know how accurate such info was for the poorer areas back then, but would you try that first, for indexed directories? So far, I know of one, but there may be more. If not, would it be likely that the father of an out-of-wedlock child would have lingered in the area for four years? I’ve tried checking bastardy lists and similar records, and so far haven’t gotten lucky with them. Thanks for any help.
Is it possible to find possible parents for ancestor that is listed as illegitimate. I have the original 1882 church marriage solemnization certificate for my great grandfather in England. It shows the father of my great grandmother but in the space for father of my great grandfather it has the statement that he was illegitimate. Any ideas?
See if you can find something like a Bastardy a bond for the mother. Sometimes the Bastardy bonds will name the father. Sometimes the bondsman is actually the father. Also, do some DNA research.
Wow, I just found this video and your channel, been up late for 3 nites trying to get over a dead end, and BINGO, I used this and figured it out! Never thought to download the census data either--DUH!! Joined your patreon. Thanks!
Another awesome video! I’ve watched this a couple times now, and I regularly make these lists (I do the whole census sometimes, to help find families that I can’t find a census for. It’s usually a spelling issue.). But what popped out at me today was the bastardy bonds. Maybe you can do a short video on when you are prompted to look for those, and where we would find them. Thanks again. I always come away with a new or refreshed angle on my searches. 🤓
Hi Carol. I've thought about doing a video on Bastardy Bonds, but they are such an obscure record and really doesn't apply to everyone. They are a holdover from English law. I look at them when there is a missing parent or there is a missing marriage record. They are not available everywhere, but are usually in court records at the county level when found. Go to FamilySearch.org/wiki... and search for Bastardy Bonds in the area you're researching to see if the records exist.
My ancestor only shows up on the 1880 census, Family tale is he took the fall for whatever and went to the pin. Supposedly dying in 1888, his wife remarried in 1889. And that's my 20yr+ brickwall my 3rd great grandpa.
Thanks for yet another informative video! I remember back when I saw the original one that it was such a light-bulb illuminating moment for me. I learned a lot of new tips and tricks from that one and now there's even more with this video. The handout is fantastic with it's step-by-step detailed info. Thanks, Debbie Jones
Connie, I did a test in Google Sheets and almost everything is the same as Excel except these two points: 1. To insert the text click on Edit, paste special, paste format only and 2. to insert the filters click on Data, turn on filter. I hope this helps.
Thanks for sharing these steps and showing how this can be done. Just wish that Ancestry or Family Search would make such index searching possible in their databases without having to go through all the extraction techniques. But absent that, it is always great to find ways to work around that limitation!
Looking at this also would provide a series of census sheets for the same family. So instead of placing the image number in the far left column, I would only need to copy the family in 1850 then 1860 then etc which might provide information that would be useful?
I have not looked thru all the comments, but you could do a "freeze" on a range to rows as opposed to doing the split. For freeze, the options are, 1 top row, 1 left column or "selection". So if you selected the first few lines they can be frozen, or likewise a few columns such as A-D if the labels are on the left.
Sure if you have the time. By extracting the information you can use the same spreadsheet for years to come as you learn more and you’re looking for different people you can filter it very quickly. This also allows you to group various spellings together easily.
Another super interesting video. I have been researching my ancestry for at least ten years. I have over 1,200 pages of data and just over 2,200 pages of historical documents, but I also have a major brick wall. My 2nd great-grandfather was born in 1826. He was Black, so I suspect he could have been a slave before the Civil War. In all my years of researching, I cannot find his parents. Any suggestions?? Thanks.
I really like your site and appreciate all the information you share. I don’t know if you covered this before. When I tried to download the census information to my excel, I had no luck at all. I followed your instructions exactly. Still no joy. I then noticed you did not mention the browser you were using. I was using Firefox. So, I switched to a different browser and everything worked. Thanks again for all you do.
Note to Firefox users: excel will paste in one column from Firefox. We have to use a different browser. I finally saw a comment someone else made on the first video or I wouldn't know this either.
Oh wow, a tedious process, but it helped me out so much! I wish this feature was built into the census image on Ancestry. I provided feedback to the site years ago requesting they add an option to search for a person of interest inside the images and to add a feature that will redirect us to another person in a different household/dwelling in the image by clicking on their name.
Outstanding video! BTW, the paste special command in Google sheets would be, copy the selection that you want to paste into your sheet, right-click on the cell where you want to paste your selection, then click "Paste special", and then click "Paste values only".
What a fantastic way to do this. Since most of my ancestors are in somewhat rural areas, at least until the 20th century, I'll likely bite the bullet and do the entire ED (and maybe even some surrounding ones) and not just a few pages on either side. I figure they were likely to have at least some contact with folks living a little further away through church and other activities. Since I'll still be able to see how close they are page number-wise, having a larger group might just save me some time later when I need to look for another ancestor or a collateral family. This will be a great way to kill some hours and will certainly pay off in spades down the road. Thanks for the tip!
Too involved of a process ...I'd have to keep replaying the video . I sure can't use or even have Excel . Got a pencil- paper method? For us that don't spent all day on a PC?
If you have Google drive, you get to have free storage and use of their versions of Microsoft, so sheets (aka excel). It's super easy to use, I use jusy my phone for searching and adding records to drive all the time, that way my records are on the go, I can do research in the car, sitting at my in-laws, while my kids are practicing their sports... It's amazing how fast you can learn 🙂
Interesting. I didn't know you could copy the census data like that. FYI tho - I ran across pages in the 1940 census where the entries were NOT transcribed (yet?).
The only thing I don't care for FAN is the whole 'traveling salesman' possibility. In other words, it's just another assumption that the parent was a local.
You can do Fan club research wherever the ancestor is located. The trick is figuring out where they are. This is where DNA can help if the ancestor is within the last 200 years.
Neat. I'll have to keep that in mind. I had done similar things with just pen and paper. I need to stop being old, I guess. I'm kind of hoping some of your videos will answer my longest running questions. Good tips so far, so I have a few hundred videos to go.
I’m not sure this can help with my accumulating brick walls , but both sides of my family are from rural county in Virginia , I can imagine I’ll come some rabbit holes if I’m just browsing. Great idea . I’m going to start with maybe 3 pages on either side and see what I can garner. Thanks for the great tip.
My dad's side is from Virginia connected to some influential names. I never liked the story Alice in Wonderland as a child but I run down so many rabbit holes I have become her in my older age. Frustrating and fun at the same time.
Connie, I am using Microsoft Excel 2010 and for some reason the "Paste - Special" isn't working when I try to paste the info from a 1860 census from Ancestry. Would you have any input on why this isn't working?
You need to upgrade to a more recent version. Alternatively, you can do the same thing on Google Sheets for free. If so, use Edit>Paste Special> Values Only.
Unfortunately, this doesn't work with Libre Office. With "paste special, text" nothing happens. If I use paste, everything goes in one column but text sizes differ; and if I use paste special>paste special>unformatted text, it goes in one column with text sizes all the same. Does anyone know how to do this with Libre Office Calc?
Thanks for sharing this technique. It's a very logical strategy. It does work with Google Sheets. One must use Paste Special and select "Values only." The spacing worked well.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! Great and easy explanation. I figured out how to make it work with Google spreadsheets quite rapidly. Love your channel!😍
Did you ever find out which Davis it was? Do you feel like your brick wall has been broken down? :) I have a very similar brick wall, but my target ancestor shows up for the first time in an 1850 census as a single farmhand. Prior to 1850 he was a minor. 1840 Census and earlier only list the Head of household and do not name minor children. SO, finding my TA in an earlier census has been impossible. Now I'm trying to use DNA Matches to help me find him. Do you have a video on that?
Hi John. This is Connie's assistant Ashley replying on her behalf. Yes, Connie has several videos regarding DNA and sorting your matches. Here is a link to the playlist. th-cam.com/play/PLiMXWjHlj5RS-KZqywC6nxWeOlnfMPAiO.html
Fantastic video! One thing. You dont need to split the page. Some folks get confused if they see the same info in two places. Just like you did for Freeze Pane, you can highlight the row (in yours you wanted to freeze 1 through 5), click in cell A6, then go back click on Freeze pane and instead of selecting top row or first column, you select Freeze Pane. Now all 5 rows are frozen without the split showing duplicate data. Just tried the copy/paste function and it appears that my census records dont have the same thing on the bottom as yours!!! Mine looks more like a JPG than a file.
Great video. I have one Great GM who had one illegitimate child that was raised by her father. So i will try this to see what comes up. this was like watching a mystery movie, LOL. Did you find out who the father was? You left us hanging.
Thanks for the video. I tried copying the census record for filtering and could not figure it out, until your video. It was a great help. BTW, I just found your channel (Subcribed!) I was searching how to analyze census records.🤣
Absolutely brilliant! I’ve identified a family tree (NPE) I belong to but can to figure out where they cross with one of my ancestors.. this will help! Thanks
Last tip. On the left hand side on the top excel green strip of menu is a quick links area. I would create a button to allow me to click just once to bring of the paste special box, and if possible the text radio button selected. I am posting via iPad, and pc is shut down so I’ll have to try another day to create this to reduce the number of mouse clicks needed.
6:45 You mentioned using a male cousins Y - DNA results for Davis. Walk me through how I get from my Ancestry DNA Zip Download to finding out a certain part of my DNA identifies my with a certain family, as you demonstrated with the family 'Davis'. This is the missing information most people that take DNA test don't understand; the (architecture) of the process to do this ! Draw us a map, please ! Thank You !
The Y DNA was done separately on Family Tree DNA. The results there were all DAVIS. So that told me I needed to look at the Ancestry DNA for the same cousin... and search for the surname DAVIS... for DNA Cousins. I found them.
Thanks for a prod to try this again. I don't use Microsoft Excel; I use Libre Office Spreadsheet instead. I suspect what I'm going to describe would also work in Open Office since LO and OO are from the same background. The commands are a bit different, so I had to do a little research. This may help others. To use the drag and fill feature to enter the page number down a column, hold down the ctrl key before clicking on the handle and dragging. Otherwise if you just drag the handle, you get series of numbers, e.g. 1, 2, 3, .... To attach filters to the column heads, select the headings of the columns you want to filter, and choose the Auto Filter funnel across the top icons next to the sort, or under the data menu. Finally, I tried this technique on the Family Search indexes, but it doesn't work because they use a first name last name single cell instead of the last name cell, first name cell separation that is used in Ancestry. So you can't sort on last name unless you wanted to go back and add a new column yourself.
I don't get it everybody's thanking you but I just don't get it. I don't need an Excel lesson. I also have an ancestor where I would like to find his father and prove that he is the father of my great grandfather times eight. this has nothing to do with that I could see. I just don't get it. this might be good for what you are looking for --a last name for your possible great-grandfather. I've never run into that problem. and I don't have the money to get DNA for everybody. and I don't need Excel to look through the census. I can just read the census but that's not going to help. for most problems. I just found this video completely annoying!!!! and especially disappointing because I thought you might have some great information on how I could find the right grandfather!!!! instead you give me a computer lesson????
The entire concept here it research the F.A.N. club to help tie records together. Sometimes when we're researching a problem, it can be complex. Thus, understanding the network of family and how they all tie together with the FAN club in a community can help tie the multitude of records weaving them together. Using this method can help find those people in the FAN club faster than searching online.
I have a brick wall that I have been unable to get past for the last 10 years. I find information on others trees but no documentation to back it up. The story that was passed down was 5 orphan brothers. Also a rumor that we were related to a certain surname. DNA said a big fat no to that. I have 2 census documents 1850 and 1870 and a marriage document from 1822. Cannot find any proof of birth or family. The census records don't even agree on birthplace.
That takes a deep dive kind of research. I have private coaching if you want to try that. That way we can jump on a Zoom call, share computer screens, and I can see your family tree. Here is a link with more information. genealogytv.org/virtual-private-coaching/
I just finished my Excel for one of my ancestors trying to find my late mother's parents. I only did one enumeration district. I didn't realized it! Now I will have to do the rest of the counties in South Alabama so I can find the one name I am searching for! But this is a great tool! Thank you! Btw, how did you find the link for the census record via Ancestry? I think I did mine wrong. Lol.
okay if you are likely to remember you have done this table in excel I guess it might work. For such as myself I would have used search then dropdown menu to census then to US 1860 then filled in Davis for surname then any particulars from your ancestors district, town etc. Search fields allow basically filter your results but adding a date of birth with plus/minus number of years you would think best age span, selecting only Males too. I am not likely to go back to an Excel sheet myself hence my method of searching If I was sent such a sheet I would have simply used Control F to search for DAVIS surname it would allow me to see if there was a ton of them before using filters. It was not a wasted effort though I have to say. I rarely use Excel so all the tips you showed refreshed and added to what I already knew as a casual user of the software. Thanks though for providing an alternate method that indeed will suit a lot of folks at home with Excel.
I agree with you method but... with the Excel, you can filter several surnames together at one time. For example, I was trying to determine a relationship between DAVIS families and HENLEY families. By filtering to just those two names, I was able to see all in the community with those names, and how they related geographically to each other. There is always more than one way to do things, so it is what works best for you, is the right move. Thanks for your feedback.
The bastardy bonds did not necessarily name the father of the illegitimate child. If the woman refused to name the father of the child, the name would be the person responsible for the upkeep of the child (father, uncle, brother, herself) so the county would not be responsible for the child's upbringing.
Connie, I know next to nothing about Excel but thanks to you there is hope. You make even someone like me catch on. I have lost track how many times I watch this but feel confident it will start coming natural. I love this and all your videos. You are such a great teacher. Thank you for all you do.
Nice! I knew about looking at neighbors on census records but saving records on Excel (etc.) is great to know. Also nice to know about are the bastardy bonds.
So all her children were 1/2 sibligs? None are full siblings? There was a lot of free blacks in Randolph county in that area or were they Native Americans listed incorrectly?
To the best of my knowledge right now, my direct ancestor was a half sibling to the others. Several of his siblings were born to the same father. I can't answer your second question, I have no idea.
I created this spreadsheet. I have an ancestor and I’m trying to find out who her parents and siblings are. I haven’t had luck with death cert or obits yet. So I’m doing the FAN club. I only found one family in her area with her maiden name. After I have researched this family do I just start researching every family on the spreadsheet?
I think FAN club research is the way to go. You might also look at the Trifecta strategy for your situation. The #1 way to break down brick walls... is kind of one component of a larger research project. Since you haven't solved it yet, look at the Trifecta to see if you get more evidence. th-cam.com/video/6fCVOXF15zs/w-d-xo.html
Thank you so much for this!! I had been trying to think through how I could import census information into a spreadsheet; this is much easier than what I was contemplating thanks to some of your tricks. Also, I used to teach Excel but I even learned some new tricks about Excel! You said you had gotten the surname of Davis through DNA. Could you explain a little further on how you got the surnames and how you narrowed down to that one. Thanks for your help!
Glad it was helpful! I asked my 1st cousin to take a YDNA test. All four matches had the surname of Davis. Then I cross referenced the surname Davis on Ancestry to find other cousins who matched with me and him. So I knew that Davis (on that line) was what I was looking for. Then after much descendant research, the closest DNA was specific to one family of four brothers... then more research, those four narrowed to one... Joel Davis Jr... his descendants had higher DNA than any other cluster of descendants from that line. I hope that makes sense.
I was struggling to get this to work then I saw on another video of yours, someone said this won't work with Firefox. I tried it with Edge and it works fine! Just incase others are pulling thier hair out trying to get this to work! :-)
You stated that census records are normally free. How can I view them free? Everytime I try looking at a census record it asks for me to sign up for a package.
Hi... sorry for the delay in answering you. The easiest way to search them for free is on FamilySearch. I think I gave you a deeper answer in another comment.
Hello Connie, I have watched so many of your videos over the last 3 days... thank you for what you are doing. I have a pre 2010 laptop with Family Tree Maker 2010 on it with my genealogy on it. I have made my tree in FamilySearch.org. I love it!
Fantastic information and very helpful, thank you. How would you go about something like this before Census records? I.e: 1700's My 5th Great Grandfather has been eluding me for years. I know the street and profession from my 4th GG birth record. (banging my head! lol)
There was a death certificate that listed my GAunt as an Actress, in the Ancestry listing, not the form itself. Then I found a census that said she was a SEAMSTRESS. 🧐 So much for having a famous family member! 🤷
Great info, I will have to have a play with this technique. Once all the data is collated I would create a pivot table to see the most common names/data.
This is a very helpful idea and came at just the right time as I am searching a neighborhood for siblings and cousins who immigrated together but their names were all mangled with different spelling variations. Excel's filtering features are a much more robust searching tool than trying to wrestle with the search tool on the websites. Thank you Connie!
This is one of the most helpful genealogy videos I've seen. Thank you.
Glad it was helpful!
Thanks for this great video. I learned so much about Excel.
Super. Glad it helped. Thanks for supporting GTV.
Thanks for supporting GTV.
This is wonderful!! I started doing this with my moms family in the boot heel of MO starting with the 1900 census and working backwards first and eventually forward. However, I kept seeing so many surnames I recognized, I stopped and am now doing the entire county for all of the censuses. This is saving SO much time!! In the end it will benefit me AND tons of other people!!
Awesome!
Absolutely awesome information!!! I love how you show us to do filters on Excel because I did that before at work, but not in the past 5 years and it's so easy the way you explained it. Thank you so much. Now I'm going to do this spreadsheet for all my peeps! I'll be done about 2095! lol But seriously, thanks for being so clear in your explanations of things we might not use everyday or forgotten how to do!
You are so welcome.
I always check the neighbors. Found the gr gr grandmother, mother to my illegitimate gr grandfather. We had not knows about him until he went to live with his father at age 10. We suspect the parents would not let them marry. She was a neighbor. My most puzzling ancestor is a James Brown, Born Canada and worked on a ship. Shipping was a big industry on that river. Lived St Lawrence Co NY 1820, 1830 then followed the Mormons west and died in Illinois. HIs daughter my ancestor was raised by fellow Mormons who had treked to Illinois also. But the puzzler is that I have 17 DNA matches with a Brown family in VA. Ancestry is suggesting they are the family of this James Brown. You have to be careful what Ancestry suggests. I think most likely I am related by way of a different Brown family in another areaof my tree. And that family was from VA, but Ancestry did not relate them that way. PUzzled by this.
There are rare occasions that Ancestry has not indexed people on the census page. I've seen it for people in my tree at least twice maybe more. So It would probably be useful to check to see if at least the heads of households are indexed on each page before entering the information into a spreadsheet. Or at the very least keep in mind that while Ancestry is amazing it's not perfect, so you might have to be extra vigilant at times.
Which is why FamilySearch census can be a backup - their indexing picks up things missed by Ancestry.
Never thought to do this for Census records to find "related" persons in this way. Thank you for the insight, will help much with my research.
Every day is a new day to learn :-)
So true. Thanks.
Wow! I’ve been self taught and you’ve pushed me to go farther! Thank you!
Excellent
Day before yesterday I was able to break through a more than one-hundred year old mystery. I used the Ancestry Thru-lines following my paternal line with the last name and state for my GG last name Jones (of course!). I then reviewed my matches and began to wild card attached their trees to my own and kablam! I know know who my GGG is and found the family in Panola County, MS. I am able to see faces of people who have been phantoms to me. I'm trying to fit some other pieces together so it's still a work in progress.
Congratulations!
This copy and pasting doesn't work in Firefox browser (everything converts to one column), but it works exactly as you describe in Chrome. This is AMAZING, Connie. I'm not a slouch when it comes to Excel, but you taught me a couple new tricks. The whole FAN searching has new life. Thank you! Thank you!
You’re welcome. 👏👏👏👏
Thanks Annette. I thought it was my MacBook OS that didn't work. I was thinking I had to use Windows OS (and I don't like Windows). With my MacBook, I was using Firefox and as you have observed, Firefox was the problem. I was able to do Connie's trick using Chrome. Thank You! Thank You! Now, I can work on my MacBook where I am more comfortable.
Thank you both for the info. I’m not a Mac user. Mac’s are a completely different language to me. Good to know.
@@GenealogyTV I was going to ask you but I found Annette's comments first. Ha Ha! I saved another dead end. I know that neither Apple nor Microsoft was going to help me. The Internet is where the useful support is. Thanks to you especially Connie - this was a particularly useful video. 6 Stars!
Annette, this used to work in Firefox but I don't know at which update it stopped working. I also use Libre & thought it was Libre that wasn't working. After several frustrating attempts, I went on to other genealogy probs. But I often review Connie's videos, and this time, I read ALL the comments. That's now my MO when I watch genealogy vids bc the community is so so helpful. I've installed Chrome, it works & I'm going to hop back-and-forth between Chrome & Firefox since all of my bookmarks are in Firefox.
Connie (Genealogy TV) - thanks for the update. I review your vids often bc each time I pick up or understand more or am at the stage in my genealogy that you're addressing. Thanks to you and the community at large!
I used your Trifecta Strategy and found my great grandmother's obit. I also found out she was a Seven Day Advent in Auburn, Maine.
Yay. See it works!
A Seventh-day Adventist
Made the first mistake in the book, started at page 7 and tried to insert previous pages before it in the spreadheet. Bah. I am using LibreOffice and it works nearly the same, but I discovered that if you are on a page, and click into the bottom section, and then right click and draw from the top left box down to the bottom right to select those cells, then CTRL-C and do the paste special into the spreadsheet, you don't get all the bumph at the top. And next trick, on Ancestry move to the next page and the table at the bottom is already highlighted so just CTRL-C anywhere on the page to copy and then use the paste special into the spreadsheet. Much faster. But thank you for this trick. PS just discovered that there is more than one 'book' for Llanelli and I did the wrong one first.
Excellent. Thanks.
When filtering, you can also just type the name in the search as opposed to scrolling to find.
This is awesome. Great idea can’t wait to utilize this on my research.
Tip If you want your page to look a little neater, more compact reduce the long name, for example, Dwelling Number can be changed to Dwelling # or Dwell #, Family Number to Fam #. Reduce anything that is larger than the information below it will have a much more narrow row for a single-digit answer below. For longer titles at the top, you can add a row below the description so you could put half of the description on the top line and the rest below which will reduce the column to a much thinner column.
Yes agreed. On longer titles I use word wrap in the same cell.
I have two sources for my great grandmother. One is the marriage license where she is recorded as born in 1878 no month as Mary Ann Richid married in Independence County Arkansas to Noah Thomas born in Independence County Arkansas also in 1878. They were married in 1898. My grandmother was born in 1900 February 11. The other was the death certificate of my grandmother died in1965 in Lee county Arkansas. Her mother was listed as Mary Ann Richards born in Arkansas, Father as Noah Thomas born in Arkansas. No other records exist that I can find with all three together or even two of them together. My grandmother was living as a ward of a family in the 1910 census and Noah Thomas as a widow both in Jackson County Arkansas but not together . Any ideals where to look? Noah Thomas was easy as I found him from birth to death in a few hours. Mary Ann Richid, Richets ,Richards ,or Richardson seems to disappear. I don't think she is a Ricketts as I don't have DNA linking me to any Ricketts.
I would look at the marriage and see if they were married in a church. If so, there might be church records. Look for churches within walking or horse ride of where they lived before cars. There might be birth registries. Look at all the census records, 5-10 pages before and after your ancestor to see if there is other family living nearby. Research all family you know of extensively. There might be clues in other family member records. Create research notes in Chronological order, offline. Transcribe everything. She died in 1965, there might be surviving burial records at the cemetery. They will likely have more info. Land? Maps? Tax records? SSDI?
Thanks great info, but if you would have keep the woman on the list you would have seen Joshua looked to be with Rebecca and Exum with Malinda don’t know if their both married but look to be. Now mike is a little out of age range and living in the same dwelling as Joshua. I would research George first.
Thank you. I’m working all possibilities.
I have a relative with little to no info. And then In the 1920 census when he’s 46 is the last time he’s seen no death certificate no marriage certificate no anything he just disappears or was killed 🥺
I’ve found so much info since that last message. How do I get more help if needed
Agreed, I learned so much from this video, thank you! I followed along and did this with you.
FYI- someone may have already discussed this but I did want to mention that in the 1870 Census for an infant the census taker put 4/12 for 4 months old in July. It downloaded as born in April but there is also a column that asked for month born that has February listed. Just might want to check to correct the month. Thanks again!
Although 10 images is sensible. If you can you should do the whole neighborhood. I see on census where they skip a house on one page and don't record it till they reach the last page.
Good point
This was just Fantastic! I immediately went to my computer and downloaded several censuses into excel. I love your videos.
Thank you Joanne.
Amazing! Thank you for explaining this in detail. I will be trying this out today!
Glad it was helpful!
Thank you for the excel spreadsheet tips! Question maybe you can help with! I have over 19000 hints on Ancestry, is there a good way to go through them?
Yes. Don’t worry about any of them except the ones that surround your research question and Target Ancestors.
Thank you! Excel also lets you filter and/or sort by the shading color and/or the font color you use. Hope this gives you more options when you're looking at the data.
ooh good to know. I did not know that. thanks
Why did you need to do all that when you already had the Bastard Bond information giving you the potential names of the father?
To verify the records.
Self taught Excel & use Excel regularly in my family history research, however you have given me another avenue to use spreadsheets in solving some of my brick walls. I'm looking forward to using this trick. I have been doing my research for 31 years but new to this site due to COVID isolation & because our Family History Centre is still closed which I am a Volunteer of. Thank you Constance for waking up my zest for researching my family history again. Cheers from Down under.
Hi Carol, from Berwick Victoria!
Yay
This might be a way to find a 1 year old baby in the 1830 census and an 11 year old in the 1840 census. I know where she was born and where she might have been in 1840. She was living with an uncle in 1840, but don't know if he was paternal of maternal. Hope the odds are in my favor.
Good luck!
@@GenealogyTV Thank you. I'm going to need it. The town in the 1830 census where she was born has 501 head of households. It's going to take some work.
I followed this step by step, in your case you had a last name to go by, but what if you don't have a name to go by?
I suspect my "great grandfather" was either adopted or his BF was someone other that what's on his birth cert. Adoption is where I'm leaning as I'm not finding direct connections to either his dad's (Hammond) or his mom's (Sortor) side of the family. Those I do show to be connected to them are also connected to another line (Turple) who I do have a lot of connections with.
P.S. I have tested with both 23andme as well as Ancestry and uploaded to all the other sites.
Karen there are lots of strategies you can try. Start with the F.A.N. Club. What is F.A.N. Club Research for Genealogy and Family History? th-cam.com/video/pXODnErWXFw/w-d-xo.html
@@GenealogyTV thank you
Hi Connie - I’m just catching up with this video and don’t know if you answer questions from old ones, but I figured I’d try. I’ve been looking for my paternal grandfather’s father for over 10 years - that is, since I was first able to access all the census data that show that the family story was a fabrication. Ack!
My grandfather was born in England in 1888. I have a full brother, and he got a Y-chromosome test via FamilyTree, up to the 111 level. At this time, it’s too expensive to get the “Big Y” test. The results are scattered as to surnames. There are a couple that are slightly more frequent - one of which shows up around the birthplace of the generation older than my great-grandmother, who was born quite a distance away. But I’m keeping it in mind.
My grandfather’s original middle name is a surname, as was common, and it’s not a family name among his mother’s relatives. So I’ve been taking that as a big clue. His birth registry entry seems falsified, as the US immigration and other records here have been. In fact, it’s possible that my grandfather’s mother my be an aunt or cousin. But I’m sticking with her as the bio mom for now. (They were very poor, and she was unwed, so unless she was paid to raise him, she wouldn’t have just taken him on. Her own father abandoned her mother when she was a teen, so they had a tough time of it.)
I’ve slowly been researching the family name, seeking age-appropriate men who might have lived in or near the same city, or ones who might have been “travelers,” aka traveling salesmen or similar.
On Ancestry, we have a tantalizing few cousin matches with that middle name in their trees. Alas, not enough people make their trees available. Still, a few have popped up in the 20-40 Cm range, which is pretty good for this many generations on. Alas, my father passed before I thought to test him. He has no brothers. A first cousin on my father’s sister’s side passed unexpectedly, and we aren’t in contact with his sister or her kids. Unfortunately.
And since I don’t know what cousins to ask on the mystery great-grandfather’s side, DNA has to be trusted to luck. I’m trying to work up the courage to contact the larger DNA matches to ask about their families. It’s a tricky topic, obviously.
I want to try this census method, but need to ask: the censuses in England are done in the “1” years. So I can do 1881 (6 years prior to conception) and 1891 (4 years after conception). I know most people didn’t move around as much then as we do today. But I’m wondering about whether searching for city directories closer to the conception year might not be as helpful in this case. I don’t know how accurate such info was for the poorer areas back then, but would you try that first, for indexed directories? So far, I know of one, but there may be more.
If not, would it be likely that the father of an out-of-wedlock child would have lingered in the area for four years? I’ve tried checking bastardy lists and similar records, and so far haven’t gotten lucky with them.
Thanks for any help.
Is it possible to find possible parents for ancestor that is listed as illegitimate. I have the original 1882 church marriage solemnization certificate for my great grandfather in England. It shows the father of my great grandmother but in the space for father of my great grandfather it has the statement that he was illegitimate. Any ideas?
See if you can find something like a Bastardy a bond for the mother. Sometimes the Bastardy bonds will name the father. Sometimes the bondsman is actually the father. Also, do some DNA research.
@@GenealogyTV Thanks for the help, your videos are great!
Wow, I just found this video and your channel, been up late for 3 nites trying to get over a dead end, and BINGO, I used this and figured it out! Never thought to download the census data either--DUH!! Joined your patreon. Thanks!
Fantastic! Woo-Hoo! Happy Dance!
Thanks for joining me on Patreon. I really appreciate it!!!
Another awesome video! I’ve watched this a couple times now, and I regularly make these lists (I do the whole census sometimes, to help find families that I can’t find a census for. It’s usually a spelling issue.). But what popped out at me today was the bastardy bonds. Maybe you can do a short video on when you are prompted to look for those, and where we would find them. Thanks again. I always come away with a new or refreshed angle on my searches. 🤓
Hi Carol. I've thought about doing a video on Bastardy Bonds, but they are such an obscure record and really doesn't apply to everyone. They are a holdover from English law. I look at them when there is a missing parent or there is a missing marriage record. They are not available everywhere, but are usually in court records at the county level when found. Go to FamilySearch.org/wiki... and search for Bastardy Bonds in the area you're researching to see if the records exist.
@@GenealogyTV Thank you. That’s interesting. I will try that idea soon. 😊
My family is all recently from UK, and I need to know how to look for the father of a gggrandfather.
My ancestor only shows up on the 1880 census, Family tale is he took the fall for whatever and went to the pin. Supposedly dying in 1888, his wife remarried in 1889. And that's my 20yr+ brickwall my 3rd great grandpa.
Thanks for yet another informative video! I remember back when I saw the original one that it was such a light-bulb illuminating moment for me. I learned a lot of new tips and tricks from that one and now there's even more with this video. The handout is fantastic with it's step-by-step detailed info. Thanks, Debbie Jones
Fabulous. Thanks for the kind words and for supporting my work.
Connie, I did a test in Google Sheets and almost everything is the same as Excel except these two points: 1. To insert the text click on Edit, paste special, paste format only and 2. to insert the filters click on Data, turn on filter. I hope this helps.
It does thank you.
Thanks for sharing these steps and showing how this can be done. Just wish that Ancestry or Family Search would make such index searching possible in their databases without having to go through all the extraction techniques. But absent that, it is always great to find ways to work around that limitation!
Thanks Steve. Sometimes I think when we do the work ourselves, we look closer at the data.
Looking at this also would provide a series of census sheets for the same family. So instead of placing the image number in the far left column, I would only need to copy the family in 1850 then 1860 then etc which might provide information that would be useful?
I have not looked thru all the comments, but you could do a "freeze" on a range to rows as opposed to doing the split. For freeze, the options are, 1 top row, 1 left column or "selection". So if you selected the first few lines they can be frozen, or likewise a few columns such as A-D if the labels are on the left.
Thank you for the tip.
This is a stupid question, but can't you just go page to page and look for him?
Sure if you have the time. By extracting the information you can use the same spreadsheet for years to come as you learn more and you’re looking for different people you can filter it very quickly. This also allows you to group various spellings together easily.
@@GenealogyTV ohhh, I see, that is a good point, thank you
Another super interesting video. I have been researching my ancestry for at least ten years. I have over 1,200 pages of data and just over 2,200 pages of historical documents, but I also have a major brick wall. My 2nd great-grandfather was born in 1826. He was Black, so I suspect he could have been a slave before the Civil War. In all my years of researching, I cannot find his parents. Any suggestions?? Thanks.
Here is a videos that might help. Researching Persons of Color th-cam.com/video/rTBkpEL_Bjk/w-d-xo.html
This is so cool! Never knew we could do that with Ancestry images!
Yeah... it's a little trick I invented. I do this with a lot of data.
So interesting! Thank you.
I appreciate it.
I cannot thank you enough..I found the parents of my 4x great grandma! After so many years! Thanks a million!!!
Wonderful!
I really like your site and appreciate all the information you share. I don’t know if you covered this before. When I tried to download the census information to my excel, I had no luck at all. I followed your instructions exactly. Still no joy. I then noticed you did not mention the browser you were using. I was using Firefox. So, I switched to a different browser and everything worked. Thanks again for all you do.
Good to know. I use Chrome 99% of the time and didn't think to try another browser.
Note to Firefox users: excel will paste in one column from Firefox. We have to use a different browser. I finally saw a comment someone else made on the first video or I wouldn't know this either.
Oh wow, a tedious process, but it helped me out so much! I wish this feature was built into the census image on Ancestry. I provided feedback to the site years ago requesting they add an option to search for a person of interest inside the images and to add a feature that will redirect us to another person in a different household/dwelling in the image by clicking on their name.
Outstanding video! BTW, the paste special command in Google sheets would be, copy the selection that you want to paste into your sheet, right-click on the cell where you want to paste your selection, then click "Paste special", and then click "Paste values only".
Thank you
Thank you spent hours trying to figure this out. Appreciate it.
Anyone in Victoria, Australia know of a guy called John James Rainford?
What I have done is do a command F and then search for Davis...yes you have to go page by page..but not that time consuming
What a fantastic way to do this. Since most of my ancestors are in somewhat rural areas, at least until the 20th century, I'll likely bite the bullet and do the entire ED (and maybe even some surrounding ones) and not just a few pages on either side. I figure they were likely to have at least some contact with folks living a little further away through church and other activities. Since I'll still be able to see how close they are page number-wise, having a larger group might just save me some time later when I need to look for another ancestor or a collateral family. This will be a great way to kill some hours and will certainly pay off in spades down the road. Thanks for the tip!
Super idea.
Thanks for your support as a channel member!
Too involved of a process ...I'd have to keep replaying the video . I sure can't use or even have Excel . Got a pencil- paper method? For us that don't spent all day on a PC?
I understand
Libre Office is freeware and similar in function to Excel.
If you have Google drive, you get to have free storage and use of their versions of Microsoft, so sheets (aka excel). It's super easy to use, I use jusy my phone for searching and adding records to drive all the time, that way my records are on the go, I can do research in the car, sitting at my in-laws, while my kids are practicing their sports...
It's amazing how fast you can learn 🙂
Me too. I use Google products too. It’s free and easy.
Interesting. I didn't know you could copy the census data like that. FYI tho - I ran across pages in the 1940 census where the entries were NOT transcribed (yet?).
Yes true
That is Awsome now to find where my G-grandma lived when she had my grandma.
The second button on your first paste click is paste text. You can also use Delimiting if formatting is uniform.
The only thing I don't care for FAN is the whole 'traveling salesman' possibility. In other words, it's just another assumption that the parent was a local.
You can do Fan club research wherever the ancestor is located. The trick is figuring out where they are. This is where DNA can help if the ancestor is within the last 200 years.
this is only useful for people researching usanians / people in countries with big census
Neat. I'll have to keep that in mind. I had done similar things with just pen and paper. I need to stop being old, I guess. I'm kind of hoping some of your videos will answer my longest running questions. Good tips so far, so I have a few hundred videos to go.
Thanks
I’m not sure this can help with my accumulating brick walls , but both sides of my family are from rural county in Virginia , I can imagine I’ll come some rabbit holes if I’m just browsing. Great idea . I’m going to start with maybe 3 pages on either side and see what I can garner. Thanks for the great tip.
I recommend at least five pages either side. You could start with three and go back later and add to the file.
My dad's side is from Virginia connected to some influential names. I never liked the story Alice in Wonderland as a child but I run down so many rabbit holes I have become her in my older age. Frustrating and fun at the same time.
Connie, I am using Microsoft Excel 2010 and for some reason the "Paste - Special" isn't working when I try to paste the info from a 1860 census from Ancestry. Would you have any input on why this isn't working?
You need to upgrade to a more recent version. Alternatively, you can do the same thing on Google Sheets for free. If so, use Edit>Paste Special> Values Only.
This works with Open Office and Chrome. It will not work with Open Office and Firefox. Thank you so much for sharing! I love all your videos!!
You're welcome!
Unfortunately, this doesn't work with Libre Office. With "paste special, text" nothing happens. If I use paste, everything goes in one column but text sizes differ; and if I use paste special>paste special>unformatted text, it goes in one column with text sizes all the same.
Does anyone know how to do this with Libre Office Calc?
I don't use Libre Office but you can also do this on Google Sheets using paste special > values only. (if I recall correctly.
Thanks for sharing this technique. It's a very logical strategy. It does work with Google Sheets. One must use Paste Special and select "Values only." The spacing worked well.
Thanks
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! Great and easy explanation. I figured out how to make it work with Google spreadsheets quite rapidly. Love your channel!😍
Thanks Barbara!
Did you ever find out which Davis it was? Do you feel like your brick wall has been broken down? :) I have a very similar brick wall, but my target ancestor shows up for the first time in an 1850 census as a single farmhand. Prior to 1850 he was a minor. 1840 Census and earlier only list the Head of household and do not name minor children. SO, finding my TA in an earlier census has been impossible. Now I'm trying to use DNA Matches to help me find him. Do you have a video on that?
Hi John. This is Connie's assistant Ashley replying on her behalf. Yes, Connie has several videos regarding DNA and sorting your matches. Here is a link to the playlist. th-cam.com/play/PLiMXWjHlj5RS-KZqywC6nxWeOlnfMPAiO.html
Fantastic video! One thing. You dont need to split the page. Some folks get confused if they see the same info in two places. Just like you did for Freeze Pane, you can highlight the row (in yours you wanted to freeze 1 through 5), click in cell A6, then go back click on Freeze pane and instead of selecting top row or first column, you select Freeze Pane. Now all 5 rows are frozen without the split showing duplicate data.
Just tried the copy/paste function and it appears that my census records dont have the same thing on the bottom as yours!!! Mine looks more like a JPG than a file.
Thanks for the compliment and the suggestion. When you go to paste, make sure you paste as "Special" and choose text.
Great video. I have one Great GM who had one illegitimate child that was raised by her father. So i will try this to see what comes up. this was like watching a mystery movie, LOL. Did you find out who the father was? You left us hanging.
Not yet. I’m still researching it. I may never figure it out.
Thanks for the video. I tried copying the census record for filtering and could not figure it out, until your video. It was a great help. BTW, I just found your channel (Subcribed!) I was searching how to analyze census records.🤣
Oh fantastic. Stick around... there's more videos every week. Thanks for the sub.
Absolutely brilliant! I’ve identified a family tree (NPE) I belong to but can to figure out where they cross with one of my ancestors.. this will help! Thanks
Glad it was helpful!
Wow! Awesome tutorial... I can't wait to put it into practice....
Thank you. It’s one of my favorite inventions. 😀
Terrific ideas! I don't have Excel but I can't wait to try the basic principle for a mystery ggg grandfather who's parents remain elusive.
I think you can do it in Google Sheets as well, and it is free.
Last tip.
On the left hand side on the top excel green strip of menu is a quick links area.
I would create a button to allow me to click just once to bring of the paste special box, and if possible the text radio button selected.
I am posting via iPad, and pc is shut down so I’ll have to try another day to create this to reduce the number of mouse clicks needed.
Another great idea. I learn something new every day.
6:45 You mentioned using a male cousins Y - DNA results for Davis. Walk me through how I get from my Ancestry DNA Zip Download to finding out a certain part of my DNA identifies my with a certain family, as you demonstrated with the family 'Davis'. This is the missing information most people that take DNA test don't understand; the (architecture) of the process to do this ! Draw us a map, please ! Thank You !
The Y DNA was done separately on Family Tree DNA. The results there were all DAVIS. So that told me I needed to look at the Ancestry DNA for the same cousin... and search for the surname DAVIS... for DNA Cousins. I found them.
Thanks for a prod to try this again. I don't use Microsoft Excel; I use Libre Office Spreadsheet instead. I suspect what I'm going to describe would also work in Open Office since LO and OO are from the same background. The commands are a bit different, so I had to do a little research. This may help others. To use the drag and fill feature to enter the page number down a column, hold down the ctrl key before clicking on the handle and dragging. Otherwise if you just drag the handle, you get series of numbers, e.g. 1, 2, 3, ....
To attach filters to the column heads, select the headings of the columns you want to filter, and choose the Auto Filter funnel across the top icons next to the sort, or under the data menu.
Finally, I tried this technique on the Family Search indexes, but it doesn't work because they use a first name last name single cell instead of the last name cell, first name cell separation that is used in Ancestry. So you can't sort on last name unless you wanted to go back and add a new column yourself.
Thanks for sharing. It’s good to know.
I don't get it everybody's thanking you but I just don't get it. I don't need an Excel lesson. I also have an ancestor where I would like to find his father and prove that he is the father of my great grandfather times eight. this has nothing to do with that I could see. I just don't get it. this might be good for what you are looking for --a last name for your possible great-grandfather. I've never run into that problem. and I don't have the money to get DNA for everybody. and I don't need Excel to look through the census. I can just read the census but that's not going to help. for most problems. I just found this video completely annoying!!!! and especially disappointing because I thought you might have some great information on how I could find the right grandfather!!!! instead you give me a computer lesson????
The entire concept here it research the F.A.N. club to help tie records together. Sometimes when we're researching a problem, it can be complex. Thus, understanding the network of family and how they all tie together with the FAN club in a community can help tie the multitude of records weaving them together. Using this method can help find those people in the FAN club faster than searching online.
Nice tricks, Excel is an awesome tool, but I don't think they'll work for my brick walls which exist in other countries.
I understand.
I have a brick wall that I have been unable to get past for the last 10 years. I find information on others trees but no documentation to back it up. The story that was passed down was 5 orphan brothers. Also a rumor that we were related to a certain surname. DNA said a big fat no to that. I have 2 census documents 1850 and 1870 and a marriage document from 1822. Cannot find any proof of birth or family. The census records don't even agree on birthplace.
That takes a deep dive kind of research. I have private coaching if you want to try that. That way we can jump on a Zoom call, share computer screens, and I can see your family tree. Here is a link with more information. genealogytv.org/virtual-private-coaching/
I just finished my Excel for one of my ancestors trying to find my late mother's parents. I only did one enumeration district. I didn't realized it! Now I will have to do the rest of the counties in South Alabama so I can find the one name I am searching for! But this is a great tool! Thank you! Btw, how did you find the link for the census record via Ancestry? I think I did mine wrong. Lol.
Through the card catalog.
okay if you are likely to remember you have done this table in excel I guess it might work.
For such as myself I would have used search then dropdown menu to census then to US 1860 then filled in Davis for surname then any particulars from your ancestors district, town etc. Search fields allow basically filter your results but adding a date of birth with plus/minus number of years you would think best age span, selecting only Males too.
I am not likely to go back to an Excel sheet myself hence my method of searching
If I was sent such a sheet I would have simply used Control F to search for DAVIS surname it would allow me to see if there was a ton of them before using filters.
It was not a wasted effort though I have to say. I rarely use Excel so all the tips you showed refreshed and added to what I already knew as a casual user of the software. Thanks though for providing an alternate method that indeed will suit a lot of folks at home with Excel.
I agree with you method but... with the Excel, you can filter several surnames together at one time. For example, I was trying to determine a relationship between DAVIS families and HENLEY families. By filtering to just those two names, I was able to see all in the community with those names, and how they related geographically to each other. There is always more than one way to do things, so it is what works best for you, is the right move. Thanks for your feedback.
Are the searches only American accessible only??
Fantastic Video. Where did you find the records for an illegitimate child. I am trying to find my great-grandfather's dad.
Bastardy bonds, census records, and previous researchers work.
The bastardy bonds did not necessarily name the father of the illegitimate child. If the woman refused to name the father of the child, the name would be the person responsible for the upkeep of the child (father, uncle, brother, herself) so the county would not be responsible for the child's upbringing.
Yes true. This also prevented the father from criminal charges if the mother refused to say.
Connie, I know next to nothing about Excel but thanks to you there is hope. You make even someone like me catch on. I have lost track how many times I watch this but feel confident it will start coming natural. I love this and all your videos. You are such a great teacher. Thank you for all you do.
The only way to learn, is the dive in. My biggest advice is to save early and save often
Nice! I knew about looking at neighbors on census records but saving records on Excel (etc.) is great to know. Also nice to know about are the bastardy bonds.
Thanks. I use this trick all the time. 😀
Great video, so informative. Always great stuff on your channel. Let’s go break down some brick walls!
Deal!
So all her children were 1/2 sibligs? None are full siblings? There was a lot of free blacks in Randolph county in that area or were they Native Americans listed incorrectly?
To the best of my knowledge right now, my direct ancestor was a half sibling to the others. Several of his siblings were born to the same father. I can't answer your second question, I have no idea.
Brilliant idea! Maybe Ancestry could start providing the data this way too!!
Wouldn't that be great!
Lol was totally thinking that
Great minds think alike
I created this spreadsheet. I have an ancestor and I’m trying to find out who her parents and siblings are. I haven’t had luck with death cert or obits yet. So I’m doing the FAN club. I only found one family in her area with her maiden name. After I have researched this family do I just start researching every family on the spreadsheet?
I think FAN club research is the way to go. You might also look at the Trifecta strategy for your situation. The #1 way to break down brick walls... is kind of one component of a larger research project. Since you haven't solved it yet, look at the Trifecta to see if you get more evidence. th-cam.com/video/6fCVOXF15zs/w-d-xo.html
I will subscribe.
Thank you
So helpful. Can’t wait to try these tips when on my computer. Thankyou
My pleasure.
Thank you so much for this!! I had been trying to think through how I could import census information into a spreadsheet; this is much easier than what I was contemplating thanks to some of your tricks. Also, I used to teach Excel but I even learned some new tricks about Excel! You said you had gotten the surname of Davis through DNA. Could you explain a little further on how you got the surnames and how you narrowed down to that one. Thanks for your help!
Glad it was helpful! I asked my 1st cousin to take a YDNA test. All four matches had the surname of Davis. Then I cross referenced the surname Davis on Ancestry to find other cousins who matched with me and him. So I knew that Davis (on that line) was what I was looking for. Then after much descendant research, the closest DNA was specific to one family of four brothers... then more research, those four narrowed to one... Joel Davis Jr... his descendants had higher DNA than any other cluster of descendants from that line. I hope that makes sense.
Very helpful 🙂
Thank you
I was struggling to get this to work then I saw on another video of yours, someone said this won't work with Firefox. I tried it with Edge and it works fine! Just incase others are pulling thier hair out trying to get this to work! :-)
It's best with Chrome.
You stated that census records are normally free. How can I view them free? Everytime I try looking at a census record it asks for me to sign up for a package.
Hi... sorry for the delay in answering you. The easiest way to search them for free is on FamilySearch. I think I gave you a deeper answer in another comment.
This is awesome but how does it work if your brick wall was born in 1804 and you have no clue of parents or siblings?
Try the Trifecta Strategy th-cam.com/video/6fCVOXF15zs/w-d-xo.html and FAN club strategies th-cam.com/video/Jn6roqriQlA/w-d-xo.html.
Hello Connie,
I have watched so many of your videos over the last 3 days... thank you for what you are doing.
I have a pre 2010 laptop with Family Tree Maker 2010 on it with my genealogy on it. I have made my tree in FamilySearch.org. I love it!
Wonderful!
Wow, recently stumbled on to your page. Great teacher, well done. Thank you
Thank you Cheri.
Fantastic information and very helpful, thank you. How would you go about something like this before Census records? I.e: 1700's My 5th Great Grandfather has been eluding me for years. I know the street and profession from my 4th GG birth record. (banging my head! lol)
Good question. I’ll have to put some thought to that.
@@GenealogyTV Thank you, that would be much appreciated.
There was a death certificate that listed my GAunt as an Actress, in the Ancestry listing, not the form itself. Then I found a census that said she was a SEAMSTRESS. 🧐 So much for having a famous family member! 🤷
Maybe she was both?
All the other censuses (sp?) say seamstress. Lol. 🤷
Great info, I will have to have a play with this technique.
Once all the data is collated I would create a pivot table to see the most common names/data.
Great idea. Keep me posted.
This is a very helpful idea and came at just the right time as I am searching a neighborhood for siblings and cousins who immigrated together but their names were all mangled with different spelling variations. Excel's filtering features are a much more robust searching tool than trying to wrestle with the search tool on the websites. Thank you Connie!
Yep... This is one of my very favorite tricks.
Thanks so much Connie. Perhaps this will work as many other attempts have not.
I hope so, for your sake.