Overcoming Obstacles

If you've had success with something like the 1930 US Census and you then begin to work backwards in time, you may be surprised (or really disappointed) when you get to the 1890 US Census: it doesn't exist anymore (lost in a fire). Similiarly, if you've been finding all kinds of great things in the Census of Ireland for 1901 and 1911, you may be horrified to learn that there are almost no censuses from earlier than that that survived the struggle for Irish Independence. These are just some of the obstacles that you will need to overcome as you conduct your family history research.

Another dilemna often is that vital records weren't required by the State or National government before a certain year. This can be especially aggravating if your ancestor was born just before the start of compulsory record keeping.

Of course, you could get lucky and find your family on the other side of such gaps (cemetery stone, family bible, etc.). Maybe you already knew where the family lived in the "Old Country" and just need to visit that town to see the family farm. But if you aren't that fortunate, you can sometimes still find some alternate sources to fill in blanks. I've listed a couple below:

(1) Census Substitutes: Ancestry.com has created a resource that allows you to search 1890s era city directories from around the United States and, possibly, locate an address where your family lived. You can find a head of the household but probably not much more than that. However, an address could be helpful if the state where the person lived conducted a census +/- five years from the lost Federal records. Don't forget, you actually don't need to search Ancestry if you have some other means to access a city directory...

(2) Parish Records: Catholic Priests usually kept records of the sacraments they performed. These could have survived at a specific church or diocesan records archive. They are often much more detailed than a birth certificate from that era could be. Be prepared for a requirement to translate from Latin or another language. Some parishes will prepare an un-official baptism, marriage or death certificate from data in their old books - kind of a nice item to have if you are preparing an official family history.

More gaps and obstacles are out there. Don't give up! You may need to find some really creative ways to search the Web to locate a source - but your persistance should pay off. Happy hunting!