Don’t assume that your immigrating ancestor didn’t stop somewhere along the way to where he finally settled. Just because your immigrant lived the last fifty years of his life in one place does not mean that’s the only place he lived after he immigrated. One of my families stopped for about ten years in Kentucky before finally settling in Illinois. Another family spent a few years in Cincinnati, Ohio, before heading further west.
Those short-term stops matter. Your relative could have married there, had children there, purchased property there, etc. And those things generate records.
2 Responses
The family knew that my ancestor was in Carroll (old) Parish, Louisiana and records of 1846 showed them there. Recently I found the passenger list for the family, leaving Germany in 1839, with destination “St. Louis.” With every new find, more questions arise! Did they go to St. Louis? When did they actually settle in Carroll Parish? Genealogy research is never “finished!”
The family that comes to mind lived their lives in Middlesex County, Ontario, Canada. But I could not find them in the 1861 census no matter how many different spellings I used for their name. I finally found them in another county. A relative’s wife had died leaving him with small children to raise and farm to manage and they had moved temporairily to help out. They returned to Middlesex County for the 1871 census.