What is the best strategy for extrapolating information from early censuses?

US Censuses from 1850 list the name of every individual in the household. Prior to that only the head of the household was listed, although household information like gender and age ranges of people in the household were also recorded. But how do you use this information to further your research (especially in finding ancestors in an area where certain surnames are common)? How do you usually follow up the information to make sure that you have recorded the right individual? What kind of information can they lead you to? Opinions, strategies, discussion and advice welcome.|||I use the census to verify what else I find through family bibles, land records, wills and recollections about parents found in county histories. You are right; once five or six brothers settle in a given county and start naming their children after their paternal ancestors, it gets confusing fast. Sometimes you never do sort it out.





On a slightly different note, if you read a dozen Q in this category, and two out of the last three answers to your Q, you'll see that you should try your question on a real genealogy board, not what amounts to a chat room for the young and inane. (Grandma_G and Robin Banks are marked exceptions.)





Look at the Q%26amp;A here:


http://genforum.genealogy.com/gen/





And on some of these:


http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/board/鈥?/a>





And:


http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/board/鈥?/a>


(has a "General" board plus some for specific countries)|||We usually ask our grandparents about our ancestors.|||Try www.familysearch.com|||Way to go! You cannot depend on census as a source of accurate information but it is a start. I look at county records to see what they can offer for marriage records, cemetery, obituaries, and tax records.





I also will check out the genealogy library in the county where they lived to see what information they might have and if there is anyone else working on that family name.





Sometimes you get lucky and get tons more info sometimes you get more questions than answers.





I also check Rootsweb, Family Search and Cyndi's List. Always check other peoples sources.





Good luck!|||According to this book I just checked out from the library called "The Family Tree Resource Book For Genealogists", which is a great source of info, lists all states, counties, dates, records began and where they are located. Here are the list that they have for other sources to check on:


Adoptions, affidavits, appeals, apprenticeships and indentures, bastardy cases, bills of sales, birth and death records, bonds, burial permits and corspe transfers, business and professional licenses, civil court proceedings, coroner's files and inquests, county hospital records, criminal court records, divorce petitions, cases and decrees, dockets, estate inventories, executions and stays of executions, formication and adultry cases, guardianship papers, homestead files, injunctions, insanity and commitment hearings, judgements, jury lists, justice of the peace records, land deeds, land surveys and plat maps, licenses and permits, livestock brands and marks, manumissions, marriage bonds, licenses, and certificates, military service discharges, mining records, mortgages and leases, name changes, naturalization records, oaths of allegiance, orders and judgements, orphan's records, petitions, poor house/county farm records, powers of attorney, prenuptial agreements, promissory notes, property foreclosures, releases of dower, relief, welfare, and public assistance records, sheriff's sales, subpoenas, summons, tax rolls, verdicts, voter registration, warrants, wills, administrations, and probate documents, wolf-scalp bounties all of these are located at a county courthouse or a town hall.


Some of these may not pertain to you, actually some of them I have never heard of until I read the book. But, I posted all they had for others.


I have found that using alternate sources to verify, like some of the documents listed above. Wills and Obituaries are great sources to being sure you have the right individual. I look in lots of microfilm where original documents have been microfilmed. I cross-reference everything until I find a legal document to prove that the ancestor is connected to my Mother.