Tips for successfully searching for and locating your ancestor in the 1905 New York State Census.

1. Searching the New York State
Census 1905
Finding a long lost ancestor using
State Census Records
©Larisa Thomas for Roots of Kinship
www.rootsofkinship.com
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2. The Challenge
• Finding Xaver Schillinger in the 1905 New
York State Census
• Known facts:
– Lived at 234 Jerome Street, Brooklyn
– Married to Catherine
– Possible household members:
• Mary (possibly with her husband Henry Altenburg)
• Catherine or Katie
• Charles
©Larisa Thomas for Roots of Kinship
www.rootsofkinship.com
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3. Start Here
FamilySearch.org – A free genealogical research website, sponsored
by the Church of Latter Day Saints
(You do not need to be a member of the church to use the website.)
©Larisa Thomas for Roots of Kinship
www.rootsofkinship.com
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4. Browse to the Collection
• Reduce the Research
Clutter
– When researching a
specific collection,
browse to it first before
entering search terms
• Click on Search on the
homepage
• Scroll to the “Browse by
Location” section and
click on “United States”
©Larisa Thomas for Roots of Kinship
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5. Honing in on the Target
Collection
• Click on “New York” in
the listing on the righthand side of the page
• You can narrow it
down by additional
filters, such as date,
but once you are in
New York, the list is
not long.
©Larisa Thomas for Roots of Kinship
www.rootsofkinship.com
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6. Entering the Collection
• Scroll down the list until you find the Census
collections
• Click on the desired year – in this case 1905.
©Larisa Thomas for Roots of Kinship
www.rootsofkinship.com
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7. Searching the Collection
• From here, enter the
name of the person
you are looking for:
– Xaver Schillinger
• Add in the residence
place to narrow down
the results to the town
or village where your
ancestor lived.
©Larisa Thomas for Roots of Kinship
www.rootsofkinship.com
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8. The Results
• 5 Results came up in this case – but none of them
are correct
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www.rootsofkinship.com
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9. Now what??
• Try searching by other
names in the household
• Try using wildcards, or
alternate spellings
• If you get too many results,
try narrowing down by the
birth year or place
– Add 1 year on either side of
your known birth year to
account for census inaccuracy
©Larisa Thomas for Roots of Kinship
www.rootsofkinship.com
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10. Hand Searching the Census
• In the case of Xaver Schillinger, those additional
options did not produce any matching results
• Now it’s time to browse the images in a hand
search of the records
– Go back to the main search screen for the collection
and scroll down to “Browse Images”
– Don’t worry – you won’t have to look at all 110,718
images. We can narrow it down first.
©Larisa Thomas for Roots of Kinship
www.rootsofkinship.com
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11. Narrowing Down Your Search
• It’s really important to know
where your ancestor lived in
1905 in order to narrow
down the search.
• Xaver Schillinger was known
to live at 234 Jerome Street
between 1900 and 1910
(based on the Federal
Censuses for those years)
©Larisa Thomas for Roots of Kinship
www.rootsofkinship.com
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12. Figure out the A.D. and E.D.
• The 1905 Census was
organized by Assembly
District and Election District
in Brooklyn.
• One Step for Finding the A.D.
and E.D.:
http://stevemorse.org/nyc/
nyc.php
• Select the Borough, the Year,
and the street name from the
dropdown menu
• Results are returned at the
bottom – in this case, there
are 6 A.D./E.D.s to choose
from
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www.rootsofkinship.com
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13. Finding the Right A.D./E.D.
• Click on each A.D./E.D.
button to see a complete
list of the streets in each
district
• Look for the crossstreets near the address
in question. For Xaver’s
house, the house was on
Jerome between Atlantic
and Liberty Avenues
• Found the streets listed
in the last District:
21/25
©Larisa Thomas for Roots of Kinship
www.rootsofkinship.com
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14. Search the Census by Hand
• Now that we know
which Assembly and
Election District his
street is in, we can
search just that
portion of the 1905
census for his name.
• Go back to the listing
on FamilySearch.org
for the 1905 New York
Census.
©Larisa Thomas for Roots of Kinship
www.rootsofkinship.com
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15. Finding the A.D./E.D. in the
Records File
• Click on “Browse through
110,718 images”
– Can be found on the listing
page, or at the bottom of
the search page within the
collection
• Scroll to the County, in
this case Kings
©Larisa Thomas for Roots of Kinship
www.rootsofkinship.com
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16. Finding the A.D./E.D. in the
Records File
• Click on the
appropriate town:
Brooklyn
• Click on the
appropriate A.D./E.D.
©Larisa Thomas for Roots of Kinship
www.rootsofkinship.com
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17. Find the Record
• Now the hunt begins,
but instead of having
to look at over 110,000
images, you only need
to go through 34.
A MUCH EASIER TASK!
©Larisa Thomas for Roots of Kinship
www.rootsofkinship.com
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18. The Results
• Xaver Schillinger was
found on image 23
– His last name was
transcribed as Schellinger,
which did not return as one
of the “Sounds like” results
for Schillinger
– The search for his wife’s
name also came up empty,
because it’s totally wrong in
the census, listed as
Carlionia, instead of
Catherine
– He’s listed as part of a larger household, under his son-in-law, Henery Altenberg,
which is also spelled differently than the known spelling Henry Altenburg
©Larisa Thomas for Roots of Kinship
www.rootsofkinship.com
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19. Conclusion
• It’s possible to narrow down the search to a reasonable chunk of
time and effort to find your ancestor in a hand search.
• Know and use as much information about your ancestor as
possible, by looking at records from years that bracket the
census in question.
• Know what resources you have available to aid you in your
search by providing shortcuts, such as the Enumeration District
finder.
• Understand what name variations may be impacting your
records search and account for them.
Good luck!
©Larisa Thomas for Roots of Kinship
www.rootsofkinship.com
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