Another Census Tag Question for Terry Reigel

[MMj 0]

Hi Terry

 

Sorry to be a pain again, but I've run into yet another issue in entering census information that I'm not sure how to handle using the structures that you defined on your TMG tips page. I have a large family who were orphaned before the 1900 census. Four of the children were sent to live in the household of a family who were totally unrelated to them.

 

Here is what I have

 

Kennedy, Alex Head 48

Margarette Dau 19

M. Agnes Dau 17

S. Catherine Dau 12

John Son 9

Barnes, Hattie Orphan 19

Herbert Orphan 16

Paul Orphan 7

Christine Orphan 11/12

 

Now, if I enter the Kennedy family into my database, I have no problem, because I can enter Alex Kennedy as a principal, his 4 children in the "with Father" role, and the 4 Barnes children in the "Witness" role. But if I would prefer not to enter the Kennedys into my database, how would I go about setting up the census tag for the Barnes children? Can I do that?

 

Thanks

Mike

Edited October 26, 2006 by MMj

[GenerationGoneBy 0]

If the children were living with the Kennedy family, you are going to probably find they are someway related.

 

What I do when I really don't want to enter the entire family, is enter the Head, and my group, and the put the rest in the memo. I rarely do this, but it will work in your example.

[Terry Reigel 0]

Sorry to be a pain again, but I've run into yet another issue in entering census information that I'm not sure how to handle using the structures that you defined on your TMG tips page. I have a large family who were orphaned before the 1900 census. Four of the children were sent to live in the household of a family who were totally unrelated to them.

I've never run into the situation of multiple children being sent to an unrelated family.

 

When I've had orphan children I have entered the "hosts" in my data set, though I've not found that to be of any real value. If there was just one child per family, you could enter it like a person boarding - enter them like they were Head of Household and add in the memo that they were boarding or whatever with so and so.

 

If you don't want to enter the host family, I suppose I'd enter one of them as principal, and edit the sentences so it makes sense. Then use a main memo like:

 

in the household of Alex Kennedy, along with his brothers and sister, [WO]

 

Then, for the witnesses, I'd edit out the "in the household of [P]" part of the sentence, and make the Witness Memo something like:

 

in the household of Alex Kennedy, along with his brothers and sister, [P], [WO]

 

If the children were living with the Kennedy family, you are going to probably find they are someway related.

I know that's sometimes the case, but not always. I have a case with 5 children all living with neighbors, and only the one with the same surname turns out to be related, best I can tell.

[MMj 0]

Thanks so much for the helpful replies, Teresa and Terry. As always, you guys have been a great deal of help.

 

Teresa, your point was well taken, because it does seem a little odd to have 4 orphans ending up in the household of an unrelated widower with 4 children of his own. But if I have any Kennedy connections, I haven't found them yet. I don't know enough about the extended families of my orphans yet. And since I have not yet uncovered the maiden name of Alexander Kennedy's wife, if she should turn out to be a sister of either parent, then there's my connection. So I will do some research from that angle.

 

But in the meantime, I will set up my census tag without including the Kennedys in my database. I had thought of the possibility of using the oldest orphan child as the principal, but hadn't figured out how to rework the witness sentences. Your comment, Terry, gives me everything I need to make that work out. Then I can just rework it later if it turns out that the Kennedy family belong in the database too.

 

Thanks again

Mike