Just got back from serious genealogical research

[no_hypocrisy]

I went to the public libraries of Dubois, PA and Altoona, PA. Wealth of information via the cities' directories, some going back to 1893. I was able to map the addresses of residences and businesses of my grandparents, their siblings, and cousins from the 1900's. Dubois even had the high school yearbooks of my aunts and uncles.

With these addresses and the GPS in my phone, I was able to trace where my grandparents lived 1916 to 1933. I found an apartment building where my grandfather had his business. Walked up and down the sidewalks of the business section and imagined that my family looked at the same buildings, etc.

In Altoona, not only were both sets of great-grandparents and great aunts buried in the same cemetery, but in the same area. I found my great-grandmother who was born when Abraham Lincoln was 27. It was Jewish cemetery with Hebrew that I couldn't read, but the names were in English. The headstones were maybe one inch apart. And to make it more challenging, it was 88 degrees and the entire section was a very steep hill. (Think 45 degrees upward. One wrong move and I could have tumbled badly.) These were headstones that I only viewed on http://www.findagrave.com. It's one thing to see your ancestors online and it's another to physically stand in front of a headstone.

I also realize this was my only likely visit to the cemetery as I'm in my late sixties.

I'm sharing this with my siblings and various family members.

This was a necessary part of discovering my "roots".

[bucolic_frolic]

1. Take those names and addresses to US Census data

Ancestry, or other library access genealogy information. wikitree.com is a free source too.

Households can be found in most census data back to about 1850 or 1860. Prior to that there is still data, but they didn't list occupations, nation of birth, and such.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Thanks. Already did Ancestry research.

Can't find more than 1900 census, which was a start. Got names of children of great aunts and have been going forward since.

[ARPad95]

3. Is there a particular census year that you're not finding your family in? I'll be happy to try my

luck at finding them. I have mad genealogical research skillz.

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=madskillz

Variant of "mad skills", used by someone who has just pulled off something intensely difficult or seemingly impossible -- by way of their immense skills at the task.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. Just one for my grandmother's family and two for my father's family.

That's why I went to the Directories. Names, residence addresses, occupation, addresses of businesses.

[ARPad95]

5. If you're looking for them in the 1910* census and have their residence address at or around 1910,

then you can use the SteveMorse.org One-Step Census Form site to locate that address in the census and see who lived there. It may be that the census enumerator's handwriting wasn't legible or your family's name was misspelled.

https://stevemorse.org/census/intro.html

But first let me mention that there are two ways of searching the census -- by name and by address. Name searching is the easier one to do, and when it works you get instant gratification. However, due to misspellings and other oddities, name searching doesn't always work. And when it doesn't, you might need to resort to the more difficult address searching. Items 1 through 4 below deal with address searching, and 5 through 6 with name searching.

Let me know if I can help you with your search.

*Or any census year. I'm just using that as the first one after 1900 census.

[no_hypocrisy]

6. You're sweet. Thank you.

Will give it a try.

[snowybirdie]

7. I found an interesting tidbit

when doing my research. Seems my aunt was the census worker at the home of my future husband. We were both toddlers at the time.