Census search secrets

Ancestry posted an article, "8 Secrets to a Successful Census Search." I think you all know these, but it doesn't hurt to have a review. Read the article here.

Rules for mental hygiene

The following was found in a PENSION record. Enjoy!

How to get along with people

Prevent your tongue from skidding

Say less, think more.

Keep the promises you make.

Count ten before saying something 

disparaging about others.

Be generous in your praise of 

work well done.

Be genuinely interested in others.

Be Cheerful.

Don’t argue; keep an open mind.

Respect the other fellow’s 

feelings.

Carry no grudges around with you.

Forget about any credit due you;

Continue your work.

FIRST RULES FOR MENTAL HYGIENE

Progress report as of April 6

Here is our progress as of April 6, 2016.

	Project 1	Project 2 - USCT
	n = 8,500	n = 4,500
Total soldiers complete	2832	569
Soldiers completed during last 2 weeks	110	28
Soldiers w/o children (to be removed from sample)	302	120
Soldiers with children complete	2530	449
% with children complete	29.8	10

It's National Poetry Month!

In honor of National Poetry month, here are a couple of census-related poems. How appropriate!

Madam and the Census Man

by Langston Hughes

The census man,

The day he came round,

Wanted my name

To put it down.

I said, JOHNSON,

ALBERTA K.

But he hated to write

The K that way.

He said, What

Does K stand for?

I said, K--

And nothing more.

He said, I'm gonna put it

KÐAÐY.

I said, If you do,

You lie.

My mother christened me

ALBERTA K.

You leave my name

Just that way!

He said, Mrs.,

(With a snort)

Just a K

Makes your name too short.

I said, I don't

Give a damn!

Leave me and my name

Just like I am!

Furthermore, rub out

That MRS., too--

I'll have you know

I'm Madam to you!

Just a note -- Before 1880, the census was taken by US Marshals and their assistants, not enumerators.

The Puzzled Census Taker

by John Godfrey Saxe

" GOT any boys? " the Marshal said

— To a lady from over the Rhine;

And the lady shook her flaxen head,

— And civilly answered, " Nein! "

" Got any girls? " the Marshal said

— To the lady from over the Rhine;

And again the lady shook her head,

— And civilly answered, " Nein! "

" But some are dead? " the Marshal said

— To the lady from over the Rhine;

And again the lady shook her head,

— And civilly answered, " Nein! "

" Husband of course? " the Marshal said

— To the lady from over the Rhine;

And again she shook her flaxen head,

— And civilly answered, " Nein! "

" The devil you have! " the Marshal said

— To the lady from over the Rhine;

And again she shook her flaxen head,

— And civilly answered, " Nein! "

" Now what do you mean by shaking your head,

— And always answering " Nine"? "

" Ich kann nicht Englisch! " civilly said

— The lady from over the Rhine.

March 2016 checking stats

In March, we checked 44 soldiers under our system. I've reviewed all of the checks, and I've tallied the number of differences. Some of these are errors, and some are judgment calls. Here are the categories and the total number of differences for each category.

GRID Errors

• MILIN?/MAR? - 14
• Missing HH member - 20
• Duplicate people - 3
• Wrong person - 2

Inferred Relationships

• Incorrect relationships - 8

Census Errors

• Name - 28
• Typo/Reading/Wrong - 105
• State Code - 0
• Missing/Wrong URL - 4
• Missing data - 58
• Additional finds - 30
• Quality Code - 28

Death Errors

• Typo/Reading/Wrong - 11
• Missing data - 26
• Missing/Wrong URL/Source - 13
• Quality Code - 7
• Additional finds - 11

Tree Errors

• Missing/Incorrect information/relationships - 19

The total number of differences for all 44 soldiers is 390. This is 73 more differences than last month. This includes an increase in the number of errors on the Grid, including forgetting to add people and incorrectly inferring the relationships. Nearly every category of difference/error increased this month over last. Some differences/errors affect the data more than others. If we checked other pensions, we'd probably find similar differences.

Interesting article on African American surnames

Thanks to Stacy for the following article.

The article is about African American surnames during slavery and after the slaves were freed. This is of especial interest to those of you who are working on the USCT sample.

The article can be found here.

Now for a break from our regularly scheduled programming

While several of us are attending the PAA meeting, we thought we'd recognize the request for kitten pictures on the blog. Maybe we'll report on the meeting next week.

This is Tony. He came by the (old) office for a visit. He's a full-grown cat now.