Matthew Boyers, who was probably born in the 1750s, was living in York District, South Carolina in 1810, and in Sumner County, Tennessee in 1830. Although quite a few people have Matthew Boyers on their Ancestry family tree, no one had located him in 1820. So, I used one of my “tricks” and searched for Matthew without his last name. I specifically searched the 1820 U.S. federal censuses for the following: First name: “Matthew” with “sounds like,” “similar,” and “initials” checked Lived in (1st search): “York County, South Carolina” in the field and marked as “exact to this place” Lived...
In 1847, the people of Ireland were suffering from mass starvation during a time period we now call the Irish Potato Famine. As I am continuing to research my Boyers family, I came across a newspaper article that mentions Robert M. Boyers (1788 in SC-1871 in TN) who I believe is either a brother or first cousin of my ancestor, John M. Boyers (~1801 in SC-aft 1870 possibly in TN). (Both men were born in South Carolina and lived in Gallatin, Sumner County, Tennessee in 1830.) The scene at Skibbereen, west Cork, in 1847. From a series of illustrations by...
I have only contacted a state archive for a document a few times. Each time, I have been pleasantly surprised. Well, except for the time when I was told the court house for that county burned during the Civil War! I am learning that we need to use state archives and there is plenty we can do from home when we cannot travel to visit them. Last week, I wrote about a newspaper article I’d seen mentioned in an old post. To find a copy of it, I used Chronicling America and then contacted a repository that held the correct...
As I was working on my Boyers family, I came across a curious entry on a 1850 census record. One of the children in the household is listed as “Unchristened Boyers.” After finding this record, I searched Ancestry for all census records for an individual with the “first name” listed as “unchristened.” There were 84 results. Some of these were actually listed without a first name, but a researcher has added “unchristened” to the name field. All of the other 83 children are babies who appear to be less than 12 months old. 1850 U.S. census, Cocke County, Tennessee, population...
A few months ago, I shared how I had some success finding wrongly transcribed names in census records by searching for neighbors instead of the people I was actually researching. I am also having success finding people by using “exact” searches without a last name. Here’s an example: The family of John M. and Matilda Boyers was located in Sumner County, Tennessee in 1830. In 1840 and 1850, they were found in Tishomingo County, Mississippi. The 1850 household included the parents, who were listed as ages 49 and 44, and eight of their younger children with ages ranging from 3...
