Search for Anderson Farnsworth

Search for Anderson Farnsworth, of age to be a possible soldier or scout during the Civil War era:

These possible matches were found (related only by surname and possible match for first name); specifically searched for possible "Anderson" Farnsworth, because of the prominence of that name in Murray County, Georgia (to see if any relationship to Farnsworth in a Michigan unit). There probably was no relationship at all. Also, these results are not necessarily related to the original subject of search, a Union scout named Farnsworth, but are of an age that one of them might be him. However, later research showed that the Farnsworth scouts of interest to the project being searched were George Farnsworth and Seth Farnsworth, not Anderson Farnsworth.

1850 US Census:

Anderson Farnsworth, born 1825-1826, Tennessee. Residence in 1850: Murray County, Georgia. He would be about 37-38 in 1863.

A. H. Farnsworth, born about 1828, Tennessee. Residence in 1850: Murray County, Georgia. He would be 35 in 1863.

1860 US Census:
Anderson Farnsworth, born 1825-1826, Tennessee. Residence in 1860: Murray County, Georgia. He would be about 37-38 in 1863.

Jos. A. Farnsworth, born 1835. Residence in 1860: Greene County, Tennessee. (He would be about 28 in 1863).

John A. Farnsworth, born about 1858, Georgia. Residence in 1860: Murray County, Georgia.

1870 US Census:
A. F. Farnsworth, born 1843-1844, aged 26 in 1870. Aged 19 in 1863. In 1870, he is in the household of Isaac Kilgo in Rock Spring area, Walker County, Georgia. Occupation: Farm Laborer.

1880 US Census:
A. A. Farnsworth, born 1828, Tennessee. Residence in 1880, Henderson County, Tennessee.

Nat. A. Farnsworth, born 1823, Tennessee. Residence in 1880: Washington County, Tennessee.

A. B. Farnsworth, born 1847, New York. Residence in 1880: Venice County, Michigan.

1900 US Census:

Anderson Farnsworth, born Nov. 1821, Tennessee. Residence in 1900: Dalton, Whitfield, Georgia. He would be 42 in 1863.

Other Sources:

Anderson Farnsworth, mentioned in Confederate Papers Relating to Citizens or Business Firms. Event place: Georgia. Document type: Citizen. Source: Microfilm no. M346, Film no. 296. No other details available, but index source might lead to further research.

This is just a selection of subjects of possible interest, found among my notes; the list might not be complete.

Genealogy: Secret Search Tip

When searching for people in second marriages, pad the ages a little more than usual. Both men and women tend to make themselves younger for second marriages. ;-) On a first marriage, the bride may make herself a bit older or younger. The man, if changing his age on the first marriage, will typically add a few years.

This is not "official" knowledge, but just something I've noticed in my own searches.

Census Searches with Surname Errors. Mcallister / Mcallester example.

This is the first of what I hope will be many discussions of research problems. Those brick walls of genealogy!

I do my searching on FamilySearch.org, Google, and various state and library databases, but feel free to try any search engine you like. I've had pretty good success in finding my misspelled, erroneously listed relatives, many of whom told little white lies about their ages, because, what the census taker doesn't know, won't hurt him, right? ;-)

I've worked out a lot of tricks to use on the search engines, but it's not an exact science for me. I am methodical up to a point, but I never can stick to a list, or think of every conceivable variation. I often get side-tracked, and sometimes even wind up tracking down someone else's line, just for the fun of untangling their briar patch, or breaking down their brick walls. I feel I do it pretty well.

Today's misspelling really shouldn't have presented much of a problem, but it certainly did. It took me over an hour to find this relative, and I did get side-tracked.

Margaret McAllister, born 1929 in Georgia, was my "known" quantity. Her parents were Charles Clifford McAllister and Nancy Clemmie Green. I expected to find them in Catoosa or Walker County, Georgia. Here are some of the things I tried...

I started out with Margaret Margret Maggie Mattie (given-name field); "McAllister" in the surname field; 1927-1934 in the year-of-birth field; "Georgia" in the birthplace field; and "Catoosa, Georgia" in the residence field. I also put in the parents' names (without the mother's maiden name). I got nothing. I quickly dropped some specifics, and searched for the same name in Georgia and in Tennessee (North Georgia people often end up in East Tennessee). I still couldn't find her, and tried widening the birth range, dropping the parents' names, then the birth state, and finally the residence. I then varied the residence (places where I thought they might have lived briefly). I even dropped the state.

For surname variations, I began with wildcards: "Mcalister," "Mcall*r" and "*lister." I must have left out "Mca*r," because it seems to me it should have come up at the top of the list, unless the extra "t" in "Margarett" stumped the search engine. My broadest search (surname of "Mc*" with no birth state or residence) was just useless. It brought up thousands of records, including some in the Midwest who looked like twins of this Georgia family, and some in  Pennsylvania, North Dakota, and other places I would never expect to find them. Some were such mismatches I had to look back at my wildcards to find out why I was finding such oddballs.

I saved my broadest search for last, because putting in the wildcard surname of "Mc" brought up a tremendous lot of results, even with the county in there; and "*ister" brought up quite a few as well.

I tried again using "Mc,*" but narrowed down the places again: birthplace of Georgia, residence of Catoosa, Georgia. That was the search that worked. Even so, it brought up a lot of results (because so many surnames start with "Mc." I had to scroll through pages of results to find them. Here's what I finally found:

US Census, 1930, Militia District 0930, Catoosa, Georgia: Margarett Mcallester, female, aged 1 10/12, daughter of Clifton C Mcallester (and wife, Nancy). Birth: [est. June 1928; indexed as 1929], Georgia. Date of Census Enumeration: 21 April 1930.

It appears that the age, birth state, and residence were not the problems in this frustrating search, but the misspelled surname of "Mcallester" and the wrong given name on the father "Clifton C" instead of "Charles Clifford" caused a lot of trouble! The search for "*ister" was a good try, but missed "Mcallester" because of the "e." I don't know if the extra "t" in Margaret messed anything up. I may have used "Marg*" at some point.

Each census year has its own search problems, due to the different ways the indexes were compiled, and I will discuss some of those problems later. I hope that some of my successes will inspire someone else and help tear down that brick wall!