{"id":14663,"date":"2017-12-05T00:30:15","date_gmt":"2017-12-05T00:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rootsfinder.com\/blog\/?p=14663"},"modified":"2022-04-15T03:51:57","modified_gmt":"2022-04-15T03:51:57","slug":"solved-success-finding-incorrectly-transcribed-names-census-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rootsfinder.com\/blog\/solved-success-finding-incorrectly-transcribed-names-census-records\/","title":{"rendered":"How I Solved It: Success! Finding Incorrectly Transcribed Names on Census Records"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Dana Leeds, blog author from the website The Enthusiastic Genealogist<\/a>, shares with us how she solved a family mystery when the incorrect name was transcribed in census records.<\/p>\n

The transcription of names on sites like Ancestry<\/a> has greatly reduced the time it takes to locate individuals and families on census records. However, incorrectly transcribed names continue to make some people difficult to locate. <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1930 U.S. census, Wayne County, Michigan, population schedule, Detroit Ward 21, p. 258 (stamped), enumeration district 82-792, sheet 1-A, dwelling 13, Charles Kaechle; NARA microfilm publication T626, roll 1063.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

In 1930, Charles Kaechle lived with his wife, Amanda, and mother, Mary M. Sprenger, on Gladwin Avenue in Detroit. Although I believed Charles Kaechle was still living in Detroit in 1940, I could not find him.<\/p>\n

I decided to try a “trick” that has sometimes worked in the past: search for a neighbor<\/i>. In choosing a neighbor, it helps to look for the following:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • choose an unusual surname or first name<\/li>\n
  • choose someone who owns a house rather than rents<\/li>\n
  • choose a younger man with a family<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
    To locate Charles Kaechle, I chose to search for his neighbor Joseph Neigebauer.<\/div>\n
    <\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
    <\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    1940 U.S. census, Wayne County, Michigan, population schedule, Detroit Ward 21, p. 18786 (stamped), enumeration district 84-1417, sheet 1-A, household 14, A. Charles Kaechle; NARA microfilm publication T627, roll 1882.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    I quickly found Joseph Neigebauer’s living on Gladwin Avenue in Detroit in 1940. Scrolling down a few houses, I saw my Charles Kaechle! It even looked spelled correctly to me. But, when I looked at the index to see how the name had been transcribed on Ancestry, it listed him as Charles Jaeckle<\/i>. The initial “K” had been transcribed as a “J,” and the “h” was misread as a “k.” So, the name was transcribed as Jaeckle instead of Kaechle.<\/p>\n

    This method will only work if your family didn’t move between the two census enumerations. Also, if you don’t find your family the first time, try a few more neighbor’s names.<\/p>\n

    If you’ve not tried this method, give it a try! Let me know if you find a family you hadn’t been able to find using the “usual” research methods.<\/p>\n

    BONUS TIP: Try a different website! If you usually search on Ancestry, like I do, try FamilySearch. In this case, I searched for “Charles Kaechle” and set the residence to “Detroit” from “1940” to “1940.” The 1940 census record for Charles Kaechle was the top hit – and it was transcribed correctly!<\/p>\n

    If you have a story idea or a blog that you\u2019d like to share as part of this series, please let us know about it in the comments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Dana Leeds, blog author from the website The Enthusiastic Genealogist, shares with us how she solved a family mystery when the incorrect name was transcribed in census records.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":14699,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,12,1],"tags":[17,22,34,35,14],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.rootsfinder.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/How-I-solved-it-Blog-Featured-cenustranscription.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rootsfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14663"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rootsfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rootsfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rootsfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rootsfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14663"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.rootsfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14663\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16104,"href":"https:\/\/www.rootsfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14663\/revisions\/16104"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rootsfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rootsfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rootsfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rootsfinder.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}