Posted by Jean Hyde on September 17, 2009 at 8:15pm
My main problem while researching my family tree is reading a census. First, I didn't think some of my family members were on any census. This was due to bad handwriting, wrong birth years and misspelled names or incorrect surnames. I had to take one census year, for one county and searched page by page to find lost ancestors.My great grandmother name was Quantillia, her name was misspelled Guantillia,Quantellia etc.My grandfather's surname was Feemster. The F looks like a fancy written H and I not sure what the other letters are. If the website don't have the option to maginify, you are in trouble. I have left my pc,after reading a census with sore muscles, eyes burning and wondered why didn't they test for penmanship. It takes a lot of patience and hard work, but when you find that one family member; it's so exciting.
You may find it helpful to Google for websites that show old handwriting samples and how to read them. The more census records that you read the easier it becomes to read the handwriting. One trick is to look for other words on the same page which contain the same letter/s as sometimes that will be a familiar word which help you decipher your word.
Comments
Thank you for the suggestions, because I was having a hard time reading the handwriting.