Group led by Janice Moerschel

Meeting Notes TAG, 8 May 2025

  We looked at the EWGS website and noted where to find SIG (special interest group) meeting notes, Digital Digest, etc.

I mentioned that there was an Ancestry "virtual event" hosted by Crista Cowan yesterday (7 May). As of this writing, it has not been posted. To find out and register for this and similar events, search the Ancestry website (in help area) for "Education" or "Ancestry Virtual Events."

 Yesterday's subject was "5 Reasons You're Not Finding Your Ancestors." It's possible we will look at this at our June meeting.

Note that the "Traits" feature continues to be updated for DNA tests.

Members shared the information on how far they live from where their Mother was born. Furthest distance was between about 2700 to 2900 miles away - too close to call the winner. Karen lives closest to where her mother was born and presented a powerpoint that included a map and pictures of the home. Other members shared also shared tidbits about their mothers and Marge read from a story she had written for the Digital Digest about her mother. May showed us a beautiful old album that belonged to her great-great-grandfather, James Alfred Briggs, who was instrumental in Abraham Lincoln's presidential campaign. Beautiful!

Since our group had fun with this theme of sharing some details about their mothers' lives, we'll do the similar for fathers at our next meeting - i.e., determine the distance from where you live now to where your father was born - in honor of Father's Day. Or tell where your father was born and see if that place still exists (Google an address). Sharing of pictures and stories are welcome!

We viewed Connie Knox's "35 U.S. Census Tips." (About a 10 minute video):Link:  

We also went over some information from Connie Knox's "Ancestry Power Plan" video that had tips for finding an ancestor in census records. This video was available for free for a limited period of time (not now) and the handout is copyrighted, but here are some of Karen Lehfeldt's notes. Thanks Karen!

Ancestry Census Power Plan

Notes of Karen Lehfeldt 

#1 Search the Card Catalog Set location to the Country level, Filter for Census & Voter List, Filter by Decade, Sort by Record Count. Select the Census you want. Enter the ancestor’s name and birth. If not found, change the name or delete information and search again.

#2 Try removing all information except the surname, birth year, and state. Search again. Try just the first name, birth year, and state. Search again.

#3 Search the Neighbors from Subsequent Census

           a. Look for the neighbors in newest census record where you last know they were located. 

          b. Note the township at the top of the page of the more recent census

#4 Search Each Township Using the Side Panel

1. Review the known census to find the township.  

2. Start over with the Card Catalog.

3. Filter to the Decade

4. Choose Census & Voter Lists 

5. Pick the U.S. Federal Census

6. You should see a side panel on the right.  

    a. Choose the State 

b. Choose the County

c. Using the “previous known township,” use that to start your search. The city or townships are hyperlinks to take you to the microfilm roll for that specific township.  

        i. Choose the same township if possible. 

      ii. Keep track of the townships you search for. Search for Surname

     iii. This will take you to image #1 of the township. You’re going to search page by page using the index and looking for the surname first, then first name of your ancestor. 

    iv. If you don’t find them on page one, click the right arrow in the image to go to the next page. Keep track of what page you are on. 

    v. Repeat the search on every page until you complete the township.

d. Go to the next township and repeat the search page by page. You will likely see family members that you recognize.  

e. Typically, this is where I find the elusive ancestors with some crazy spelling that the search engine did not pick up. Sometimes the first and surnames can be reversed.

#5 Extract the Census Using Excel and Filter by Other Data

  Filter by surname, first name, age, etc.

*** Please forward suggestions/topics/ideas for future meetings or questions - or to volunteer to do part of a program/presentation - to Janice at: moerschelj@gmail.com.

The next meeting of TAG. will be Thursday, June 12, at 1:00 PM on Zoom.

TAG had 15 participants today:  Albert Calderon, Ardis Storms, Charlotte Sullivan, Dan and May Cotton,  Dianne Bongarts, Duane Beck, Janice Moerschel, Karen Lehfeldt (Clarkston, WA),  Marge Mero, Patricia Robison, Paula Davis,  Ron Marvin, Ruth Halligan, and Sandi Gaffney. Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms in our group!

Janice Moerschel - moerschelj@gmail.com TAG (The Ancestry Group)