----
---- —
Life is like a finished puzzle – but where did the pieces come from?
It’s like putting a puzzle together. You can see the finished product – the picture on the box – but yet all the pieces have to fit that make your puzzle picture perfect.
Take a look in the mirror and you will see the finished product. That’s right – you! Now ask yourself this question: What or who makes me what I am? Am I just the sum of my parts or is there more to me than meets the eye?
Well definitely there is more to me than meets the eyes – no bikinis in my future. Seriously, we have to look at the past to appreciate the present.
Look at the past – maybe start with your grandparents. What do they have to do with my puzzle? Everything.
Before my grandmother passed away, she gave me her Granny’s glasses. That would be my great-great-grandmother’s glasses. They are old, quaint and quite adorable – like I want to be someday.
The odd thing about those glasses is that I can see perfectly out of them. That’s right. I’ve worn glasses since I was 10 years old. Imagine my surprise when I could see out of glasses that are more than 100 years old.
What did she see? What was her world like? To put those questions to rest and those like them you need to dig a bit deeper.
Each person in your family who came before you is a piece of the puzzle that is you. Searching your family tree gives you a real sense of who you are. In fact, just searching gives you common grounds with lots of people. There is a world of people looking to find themselves in the faces of their ancestors.
One of the most valuable tools that a genealogist has is census records. The United States population census records contain a lot of useful information about people. Census taking is nothing new.
The first known census according to historical data was taking by the Babylonians in 3800 B.C. The Bible relates several stories about census taking. In American there was population census taken in 1790 and has been every 10th year there after. With information gathered, genealogists can discover where their ancestors were at a certain time, who their neighbors were and other pertinent info.
Some census years more information was garnered than others. For example the 1790 census recorded information in six categories and the head of household was the only name listed. The 2000 long form of the census had 52 questions and was 12 pages long! It asked the name of every person in the home and information about work status and a myriad of other questions.
For privacy reasons the actual records are not released for 72 years after the census is taken. The most recent census available for genealogical research is 1930.
We are in the process of being counted again. Hopefully you have already sent your census information in. Someday someone may be searching for you to find themselves.
Simply Sandy is written by Sandy Jarrell and appears the first Wednesday of each month. Simply put, it’s Sandy waxing wordy once a month about life as she knows it. Jarrell is a native and life-long resident of Coleridge and a librarian at Ramseur Public Library. She can be reached by e-mail at wjarrell@rtmc.net
