A stint in prison can explain why your ancestor is not enumerated with his family in the census. Court records or newspapers may contain additional details about why your ancestor landed in prison. State prisons (or the state archives) may have additional records. And, it is also possible your relative ended up divorced over his incarceration–resulting in more records.
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2 Responses
Unfortunately, finding out a certain relative did time also meant discovering that he was not the father after all! Very devastating news that we haven’t shared with some older relatives. Difficult to handle these situations in families.
Sometimes the discoveries are not the ones that we hope for or result in situations that can be difficult to navigate, especially if the amount of time since the incident is not too long.