Census Clues: Sweet Potato Simon, White Potato Willie, & Cows that Grow Wool

Elizabeth Shown Mills, CG®, CGL®
Mar 22, 2024
2.0K views
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About this webinar

Census records are the most used—and yet the most underused—of all genealogical resources. Every major provider offers them, along with an index so we can easily find our people. Aside from a year here or there, when a pesky ancestor seems to have eluded the census taker, the use of censuses seems fairly straightforward: We use a search engine to find our person and we copy down the data. There, done!

No. Not at all! Censuses provide “facts,” but in between those “facts” there are a wealth of clues we can mine to solve our worst problems with identity, origin, and parentage. This session is for advanced researchers who think they “already know all about census records” and for newer researchers who want to avoid the mistakes most researchers make.

** This is a members-only webinar **

About the speaker

Across a long career, Elizabeth Shown Mills, CG®, CGL®, FASG, FUGA, FNGS, has been an innovator of research methods and strategies. Published widely by academic and popular presses, she edited a natio...
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Comments (225)

Sort byNewest
  1. DR
    Deborah Richardson
    1 year ago

    Thank you! A great reminder and a push that I need to map the people! I'm hoping that I will answer some questions and find Aunt Martha on the only census before she was married. I'm so very appreciative of this opportunity to learn!

  2. TL
    Tedi Lojewski
    1 year ago

    Elizabeth has again provided a fantastic webinar with invaluable information! Where is my grandmother in the 1940 US Census? I had already come to the conclusion that the entire neighborhood was missing from the pages where her residence (where she lived from 1920 until her death in 1981) should have shown in the census. I now have additional strategies to find this "needle in a haystack" missing piece. A reminder about what constitutes "exhaustive research".

  3. MR
    Martha Rehm
    1 year ago

    Another thought-provoking webinar pushing us all to be more in-depth researchers! Thank you!

  4. JC
    Janet Cook
    1 year ago

    Very educational!

  5. ML
    Michael Lancaster
    1 year ago

    An immense amount of insight and learning condensed into an accessible, one-hour webinar.

    1
  6. SB
    Sharon Barnes
    1 year ago

    She is always great.

  7. LG
    Lauri Gartner
    1 year ago

    I've attended many conferences in the past 40 yrs and never heard a more brilliant speaker than ESM! My first time was in 2018 at the MI Gen. Council Conf in Grand Rapids, MI where I went to 3 ESM lectures and was transfixed by her. I watch her webinars over and over-- sometimes 5 times to take it all in. This Census Clues talk is filled with unique strategies, wish I'd found her 50 yrs ago because to quote Elizabeth I grazed like a cow instead of digging like a pig and really should start over.

    2
  8. GM
    George Mabry
    1 year ago

    Such a professional entertaining presentation.

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Census Clues: Sweet Potato Simon, White Potato Willie, & Cows that Grow Wool - Legacy Family Tree Webinars