Never be so stuck on an initial conclusion that you avoid other reasonable scenarios or avoid looking for records because the person you need to find “simply cannot be in that location.”
A relative concluded a family member returned to Germany for a visit and returned to the United States simply because the ancestor could not be located in the 1870 census. The story of the trip was repeated enough that it became an accepted fact.
It’s easy to jump to conclusions when we are first starting out. We can sometimes “break brick walls” by going back and reviewing those initial conclusions.
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4 Responses
So what did happen? Were you able to prove the trip wrong, or are you simply dropping the trip theory as unprovable?
At this point, I’m not entirely certain what happened, but since he’s not on a “rearrival” manifest either, there’s not direct evidence to support the visit back home either.
At this point, I’m certain he cannot be found in a specific census–and that’s what I say about this person in my summary of what I know about them.
Perhaps it is best then to collaborate with researchers, familiar with the research process in the local area of interest and professionals who can look with new eyes. That is one of the reasons I am joining and looking forward to the upcoming trip to Allen County Library with Michael.
I could not find a person in one of the censuses. Using censusrecords.com, and various spellings, I found him in Brewster Wa with a group of men. He was a teamster, and had evidently taken feight from Indiana to Washington.
The next census, he was in both Indiana and Washington. The data was collected several weeks apart, but I do not know if he was actually home, or just reported with his family in Indiana.