SNGF--Sharing a Document That Provided New Information-Johnstons & Jones in Comanche Co. 1880 census

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:

It's Saturday Night again -

time for some more Genealogy Fun!!

Our assignment today from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings is to describe a common document or record that provided new and/or unique information to one or more of our ancestors. (Thanks to Linda Stufflebean for this topic.)

Here's mine:
My document shows well how keeping track of the neighbors on a census record can pay off.

The document that gave me much information about my mother’s paternal side of the family is the 1880 U.S. federal census for Comanche County, Texas. I was looking for Rubin M. Johnston, my 2x-great-grandfather. Because of the large gap between the census years 1900 and 1880 due to the loss of the 1890 census, I was not sure if I would find him married or still with his parents.

I found him with his wife, Olevia J., and three daughters I did not know.[1] There was a clue on the census that they had been married the previous year, so Olevia was likely his second wife and the three daughters were of his first wife. There was another clue, too. This census was the first to ask about the birthplaces of parents. Olevia was born in Mississippi, but the mother’s birthplace for the three daughters of Reuben is listed as Texas. I had a new wife to search for.

But that is not what else this census record gave me. As I looked at the households above and below Reuben, I found other family members. Directly above Reuben are Marian J. Johnston, his mother, Elizabeth Johnston, and his brother, David N. Johnston. Elizabeth was born in South Carolina and so was the mother of Reuben, Marian, and David. Their father is also listed as being born in South Carolina.

Looking at the other households, I see a woman who also listed her parents’ births in South Carolina: Sarah A. McDonald, married to James E McDonald, is listed next door and she lists her birth as Mississippi and her parents’ birth in South Carolina.

There are more family members on this page. Reuben married Olevia J Jones in 1879 but the marriage has not been found. The family members listed above Marion Johnston are members of Olevia’s family. Mary F. Jones married Henry F Wright. Bettie E. Jones married George W. Knox. Thomas W. Jones married Nancy A. Huff. Olevia’s mother, Amanda, is living in George W. Knox’s household along with her sisters Laura C and Mattie M Jones.

Of course, I did not see these connections at first. It took looking at census records in 1870 and 1860 to get a feel for the makeup of the families that Reuben and Olevia grew up in. But this image of the census record with the families labeled is one I use in presentations about working through tough problems. This visual really shows it:

It is important to keep track of the neighbors of families on census records because they just might have some kind of relationship, even if you don’t yet know what it is at first.

---

[1] 1880 U.S. census, Comanche Co, Texas, pop sched, Prec. 3 & 30 District, ED 30, p. 95 (stamped), dwelling 172, family 173, M. Ruebin Johnston; NARA film T9, roll 1297.

Copyright © 2023 by Lisa S. Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.