Lindsay Smith, emigrated to USA in 1923 .....

Rockford · Post by **Rockford** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 12:32 am

I've failed and my eyes are out on stalks

. I've looked at every Peter Duffy (out of the 165 possibles) and the Elizabeths and their youngest son, Thomas.

A gentle nudge might help........

Brian

Post by **SarahND** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 12:41 am

Rockford wrote:A gentle nudge might help........

Okay, Brian

Here is a gentle nudge before I fall asleep here in Europe (it's well past midnight) Try Akron, Summit county Ohio... and then you'll find Peter's death in the Ohio Deaths, 1908-1944 in Summit County also.
Night!

Sarah

P.S.

oops, sorry, I see that he is indexed "Duffey" although it is clearly "Duffy". There is a John Smith, brother-in-law too, who should gladden your heart.

Rockford · Post by **Rockford** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 7:17 pm

Found them! And Peter's death. I also found the death of a John Smith in Akron in 1966 aged 84 which is about right for the brother-in-law, but I'm sceptical about this, although other members of the family lived to a great age.

Finding John listed does gladden the heart - although it sends me off on another chase trying to find him, as it seems he emigrated in the early 1900s too!!

Thank you so much for your help. With all the weird and wonderful indexing, I'm not sure I would ever have made the connections.

And here I thought Lindsay would be the easier one to find!

Best wishes

Brian

PS Have a nightcap tonight on me!

Post by **SarahND** » Fri Feb 23, 2007 3:35 pm

Hi Brian,
I'll save that nightcap for later, it being only 8am in the new time zone in which I find myself today (although I must admit I feel like it's late...) You're right to be sceptical of anyone named John Smith, but you never know... Somebody has to be the right John Smith! I once thought I had lost track of a great aunt after finding her marriage to a John Smith, but the family had the good sense to move to a village of 60 inhabitants in Arizona and were thus the only Smiths for miles around

When navigating Ancestry.com, do take advantage of the flexibility of the search. If you don't find someone under the right name, try, for example, anyone (name left blank) born in Scotland at about the right time, who emigrated at about the right time-- and you may just find others in the same family! Always start with a wide search. If there are too many results then gradually narrow it down one field at a time. If you still don't find them then try varying the fields you specify. Think of the things that are often mis-transcribed, such as age, which is often off by quite a bit and also place of birth, which the emumerator often puts as the current census state instead of the actual place of birth. There are many fewer indexing errors in the U.S. censuses (they were done before the brilliant idea of using OPR technology

) but sometimes the indexer went cross-eyed and noted down the birthplace of the neighbor instead. Most of the errors, however, are not in the indexing, but were made by the enumerator at the time (or given wrongly by the person enumerated!)

All the best in your further searches

A jetlagged Sarah