What's My Name?

Ancestry.com, a paid subscription service, is the source of my census records.  They offer the 1790 through 1930 censuses, all fully indexes and searchable. Other paid subscription services also offer some or all of the 1790 through 1930 censuses. 

Indexed and searchable census records are one of the greatest boons to genealogical research. Simply type in your ancestor's name and where he lived and BINGO, there he is. But wait, he doesn't show up. You know your gr-gr-grandfather Alexander Blair lived in Barnet Vermont in 1860. All of your research points to this. Could all that hard work be wrong? Don't throw your research away just yet, it could be right.

Indexes are created by human beings, like you and me, who sit down with the actual census records or images (I don't know which) and create the index based on what they see or think they see. I think it's an understatement to say that many of the actual records or images are very hard to read. It's obvious that good penmanship was NOT a requirement to becoming a census taker.

The bottom line is that there are many errors in interpreting the spelling of names. In the case of Blairs, I now have 19 different name variations I check: BLAIR, BLAIN, BLAIS, BLAR, BLAN, BLAS, BLAIRE, BLAINE, BLAISE, BLAER, BLAEN, BLAES, BLARE, BLANE, BLASE, FLAIR, KLAIR, PLAIR, and RLAIR.

Back to our gr-gr-grandfather Alexander Blair who lived in Barnet Vermont in 1860. After checking the variations in spelling we find Alex Blais listed in Barnet, Caledonia Co., Vermont, along with is his wife and two sons. Your research was right after all.