Census

The census is a great tool, and with folks having as many kids as they did in the 17th to 19th centuries, it really helps flesh out families, every 10 years as one or two children leave the home and new kids are being born, you typically have a couple of anchor kids in the middle - aged 4-8 - to know this is the actual same family. This is particularly important as you'll sometimes get weird naming issues crop up (in my family Moses shows up as "M.F. Ferrell" in the 1940 census (Row #79), and Elijah shows up as "Lige" in 1880 (Row #1), and Moses wife Clearisa's name's spelling is changed nearly every census.

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