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1 - my dad's family of origin does not show up at all on the 1930 census. (Boston area, I know they were in the area).
2 -my dad's brother, who died young, does not show up on either the birth records or death records for the area. I know his name and have seen his gravestone. Question 1 is relevant because the 1930 census is the only one where he would have been counted. He was born after 1920 and died before 1940. I believe he was between 6 and 10 at death and died from a childhood disease.
1. not all Censuses are 100% accurate, for a bunch of reasons.
2. Have you tried looking for possible, various mis-spellings of names ? It took me several years before I found my father's family in the 1930 Census due to a horrible mis-spelling on the original. Also there are mistakes in transcription from paper to digital due to handwriting etc.
Same for birth/death records. Also some jurisdictions withhold public release of some Vital Statistic records for as much as 100 years
1 - my dad's family of origin does not show up at all on the 1930 census. (Boston area, I know they were in the area).
It's not impossible they were missed or skipped on the census, it does happen sometimes. However, it's more likely you're just not able to find them due to an error in enumeration or indexing. Have you tried looking by address?
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2 -my dad's brother, who died young, does not show up on either the birth records or death records for the area. I know his name and have seen his gravestone. Question 1 is relevant because the 1930 census is the only one where he would have been counted. He was born after 1920 and died before 1940. I believe he was between 6 and 10 at death and died from a childhood disease.
Are you certain Massachusetts birth and death records from that time period are public and available online? Not all vital records are. Check with the State Vital Records Office: https://www.mass.gov/orgs/registry-o...and-statistics
Sometimes I've had to go page by page to find someone. It helps if they lived on the same street for decades.
Besides noting the street & house number, one thing is to always write down the names of 4 or more neighbors listed before & after your subject in years in which you can find him.
Then you can search for each of the neighbors in the census years when you can't locate the subject. & as added bonus sometimes neighbors will turn out to be related.
There are several ways to manipulate search engines in addition to the wildcards. So post your info, if you want more eyes to take a look.
Per my dad, his family moved around a LOT when he was growing up, even to the point where he came home from school one day and they had moved. He had to ask a neighbor where they moved to.
MA birth and death records are available online and have been very helpful. I'll try looking under various spellings.
One thing to keep in mind is that not all census records were taken at the same time. Sometimes when I find a gap in an ancestors census listings I'll look at the dates the census was taken in the previous location and the future location they lived and noticed there was enough of a gap for them to relocate after one was taken but before the other.
Additionally errors happen.
to answer your original question, missing records do happen. More than one might expect, though if the records are there for that time and place then often it might just be hard to find them on said records, like census listings not index'd appropriately for easy searching.
A good way to find that specific case is to look at neighbors in the census before and after and try to find where they are on the census where the person you are is looking, then look at the pages surrounding them since the person you are trying to find might still/have been be a neighbor.
One thing to keep in mind is that not all census records were taken at the same time. Sometimes when I find a gap in an ancestors census listings I'll look at the dates the census was taken in the previous location and the future location they lived and noticed there was enough of a gap for them to relocate after one was taken but before the other.
Additionally errors happen.
to answer your original question, missing records do happen. More than one might expect, though if the records are there for that time and place then often it might just be hard to find them on said records, like census listings not index'd appropriately for easy searching.
A good way to find that specific case is to look at neighbors in the census before and after and try to find where they are on the census where the person you are is looking, then look at the pages surrounding them since the person you are trying to find might still/have been be a neighbor.
Additionally on that last suggestion one of the best ways to trace tricky lines in census records is to thoroughly look at their neighbors. Almost always people move alongside those they were next to, family, etc. A common misconception when you're new to genealogy is a sort of lone wolf perspective of ancestors, the reality is a single family relocating on their own and not alongside others is pretty rare, so learning what you can about their closest neighbors can often lead you to things you might not find otherwise. Also family since people will often land near family.
1 - my dad's family of origin does not show up at all on the 1930 census. (Boston area, I know they were in the area).
2 -my dad's brother, who died young, does not show up on either the birth records or death records for the area. I know his name and have seen his gravestone. Question 1 is relevant because the 1930 census is the only one where he would have been counted. He was born after 1920 and died before 1940. I believe he was between 6 and 10 at death and died from a childhood disease.
I don't know what you're using.
Ancestry's Census records contain numerous transcription and spelling errors, and that is compounded by the enumerator's misspellings and errors.
The enumerators were US Marshal's who were more interested in getting paid, than in doing a good job. Their work is often sloppy, and their penmanship is atrocious. They often wrote what they thought they heard, and they usually spelled names the way they thought they should be spelled. I've seen asterisks and question marks on Census records made by enumerators who couldn't figure out how to spell names.
People, especially in rural areas, didn't even know how to spell their own names. I have 12 children, with 5 using the spelling "Evitts" and 6 using "Evetts" with another using "Everett." In two instances, Social Security has their name listed as "Evitts" but their tombstones show "Evetts" and in one case, Social Security has it listed as "Evetts" but their tombstone says "Evitts."
On so many occasions too numerous to count, Family Search has records that Ancestry apparently doesn't have, so I always search on Family Search before using Ancestry, whose search results are often useless, and that includes Census records on Family Search that don't appear on Ancestry.
You can look at the two families before and after your family on the Census, and then search for the names of those families on the next Census. Scroll through and you'll often you'll find the family you want right where they're supposed to be, but their names are corrupted or illegible.
It's rare for a family to move during a Census, but it does happen, and if you suspect the person is dead, then use Family Search to find a death record, or try Find-a-Grave to see if there's an entry there.
Outside of that, you're only option is to go to that county and do a physical search of death records, or see if you can pay someone to do it for you.
You can also contact local genealogical societies, or go to their web-sites, because they sometimes have indexed records.
Contact the local public libraries, too.
Back in January, a librarian told me she knew several people that were constantly there doing their own genealogical research. I gave her my phone number and e-mail address, and a few days later a woman sent me an e-mail. We agreed on a price of $50, she set up a Pay-Pal account, I paid her and she e-mailed me three scanned copies of the obituaries. It would have cost me at least that in gasoline to drive there and back.
Spelling errors are very common as are transcription errors in the finding aids. My Irish ancestors name was spelled as the German census taker heard it so it resembles a German name. There’s a half dozen ways to spell most names. See if you can find the family in a city directory and search for the address in the census.
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