Ancestry.Com Census Errors

I've just learned a valuable lesson about Ancestry.com census records.


I was searching for a particular Coffey family in 1840 North Carolina using the Ancestry census index. The index points to them in Wake Co.


That particular census (according to Ancestry) consists of 172 images. The family I was looking for, along with other families known to have been related, was found on image 144. The only problem is that the enumeration for Wake Co. ended at image 105 with Yancey beginning at image 106.


I was finally abe to figure out the problem, thanks to a sharp-eyed fact checker who questioned why this particular Coffey family would be in Wake Co. at that time.

Coffey Facts You Might Not Know

Places of Origin:

Ireland ranks at the top.

Immigration:

The largest number of Coffey emigrants to the US came in 1852 when a total of 81 were recorded. There was a precipitous drop between 1861 and 1862, but peaked again in 1863 when 53 arrivals were recorded. Coffey emigrants continued to drop until about 1883 when 72 arrivals were recorded. Immigration dropped again between 1885 and 1891 and never again reached 1850-51 levels.

Civil War Service:

300 Coffey Confederates out of 1,050,000 total veterans
295 Coffey Union Soldiers out of 2,213,363 total veterans

Average life expectancy:

This is hard to believe. In 1944 average life expectancy for all Coffeys was 24 years. The general public was not much better off. It rose in 1946 to around 63 years and fluctuated around 50 to 55 until a general rise in the early 1960s. It reached a high in 1964 at 72 years, and has continued to trend generally upward ever since. There is not a large difference in life expectancy for the Coffey population compared to the general public.

Name distribution:

There are Coffeys in every state in the union, including Alaska and Hawaii. The largest concentration in the 1920s was in NY and IL. Go figure! I would have suspected states like Tennessee, Virginia and Kentucky would have the largest concentration of Coffey families. California, TX, OK, MO, TN, KY, NC, SC, VA, OH, PA and MA contained the next largest population.

Occupation:

The top Coffey occupation in 1880 - as might be guessed - was farming. Thirty-eight percent of those families were farmers while only 35% of the general public were farmers.

Source: Family Facts, Ancestry.com

WWII Enlistment Records - US Army

Ancestry.com, a "for fee" genealogical research site, has begun to add the nearly 8.3 million enlistment records for men and women who enlisted in the US Army during WW2.

I did a quick check for the Coffey surname and found these:

US Army WWII Enlistment Records

Name - Birth Year - Native State - Enlistment Date - State - Enlistment State

Alfred Coffey 1925 Texas 23 Jun 1943 Texas Texas
Andrew J Coffey Jr 1919 Texas 27 Mar 1941 Texas Texas
Beauford C Coffey 1917 Texas 12 Mar 1942 Texas Texas
Carl W Coffey 1913 Oklahoma 24 Mar 1944 Texas Oklahoma
Carroll W Coffey 1927 Texas 2 Feb 1946 Texas California
Charley R Coffey 1923 Texas 23 Aug 1944 Texas Texas
Covis W Coffey Jr 1919 Texas 29 Jan 1942 Texas Texas
Earner C Coffey 1920 Texas 25 Nov 1940 Texas Texas
Eugene Coffey 1912 Texas 18 Feb 1942 Texas Texas
Frank D Coffey 1928 Texas 1 Mar 1946 Texas Texas
Fred A Coffey 1921 Oklahoma 11 May 1943 Texas Texas
Garland W Coffey 1920 Texas 3 Dec 1941 Texas Texas
Horace M Coffey Jr 1915 North Carolina 1 Aug 1942 Texas Texas
J E Coffey 1921 Oklahoma 20 Jul 1942 Texas Texas
James H Coffey 1915 Texas 11 Mar 1942 Texas Texas
James L Coffey 1918 Texas 14 Nov 1942 Texas Texas
James O Coffey 1922 Texas 6 Nov 1942 Texas California
Jesse L Coffey 1913 Texas 18 Jun 1942 Texas Texas
Joe A Coffey 1918 Texas 20 Mar 1941 Texas Texas
John M Coffey 1902 Texas 10 Jul 1942 Texas Texas
John S Coffey Jr 1911 Texas 17 Jan 1941 Texas Texas
Joseph M Coffey 1909 Illinois 16 Jan 1941 Texas Texas
Joseph P Coffey 1917 3 Apr 1942 Texas Texas
Kendall L Coffey 1926 Texas 27 Jan 1946 Texas
Knox Coffey 1900 Texas 22 Jul 1942 Texas Texas
Leroy F Coffey 1922 Texas 25 Jan 1944 Texas Texas
Louis G Coffey 1918 Texas 30 Jul 1941 Texas Texas
Lowell W Coffey 1918 Texas 9 Jun 1942 Texas Texas
Lucy F Coffey 1906 Texas 3 Apr 1943 Texas Texas
Malcolm A Coffey 1913 Virginia 11 Jun 1942 Texas Texas
Malvin S Coffey 1916 Texas 30 Nov 1942 Texas Texas
Malvin S Coffey 1916 Texas 10 Nov 1941 Texas Texas
Mary F Coffey 1902 Texas 17 Jul 1944 Texas Texas
Paul Coffey 1907 Texas 19 Sep 1942 Texas Texas
Robert N Coffey 1923 Indiana 3 May 1941 Texas Texas
Romey J Coffey Jr 1917 Texas 3 Feb 1942 Texas Texas
Rufus T Coffey 1917 Texas 20 Nov 1942 Texas Texas
Thaddeus E Coffey Jr 1922 Texas 8 Dec 1944 Texas Texas
Thomas Coffey 1906 Texas 23 Feb 1942 Texas Texas
Vernon G Coffey 1921 Texas 26 Jul 1942 Texas Texas
Walter J Coffey 1920 Texas 19 Oct 1944 Texas Texas
Weldon H Coffey 1920 Texas 25 Nov 1940 Texas Texas
William D Coffey 1921 Texas 25 Nov 1940 Texas Texas
William H Coffey Jr 1925 Texas 28 Jul 1943 Texas Texas
William M Coffey 1918 Texas 25 Nov 1940 Texas Texas
William R Coffey 1921 Texas 1 Nov 1942 Texas Texas
Woodrow Coffey 1919 Kentucky 6 Aug 1942 Texas Kentucky

Contact me for additional information about this database.

Coffee surnames to follow at a later date.

Genealogy and Family History Research

DistantCousin.com

According to the Welcome message at this website, "DistantCousin is an online archive of genealogy records and scanned images of historical documents from a wide variety of sources, such as newspaper obituaries, city directories, census records, ship records, ship lists, school yearbooks, military records and more. In all there are 6 million genealogy records from over 1,500 sources online. There are no fees or memberships required to use the records at DistantCousin."

When I visited the site for the first time I found several "Featured Genealogy Databases," including the San Francisco, CA 1922 City Directory, El Paso, TX 1927 City Directory, among others.

It appears that some links go to Ancestry.com ($), and Genealogy.com ($).

Under "United States Genealogy" I clicked on California and found scanned images of a city directory for Menlo Park, CA dated 1926.

Using that link I found clickable page numbers and surnames. Users will have to use the "Find" function in their browser to locate a particular name; the names are "not necessarily in alphabetical order."

On the same page with the link to the city directory, are links to a number of CA university yearbooks. Those - or at least the one or two that I checked - are not scanned, but are extracted lists.

Perhaps the most useful area that I found on this website are the scanned images of city directories. I searched the 1924 Nashville, TN directory and found a couple of Coffee names, and several Coffeys. These are a few:

COFFEE Joe M. (Hallie) mach h2605 Branch av
COFFEE Smith* lab Ward Belmont Sch h1007b 10th av S
COFFEY Benj B pres Reliance Mfg Co h321 21st av N
COFFEY Ella* h620 Webster
COFFEY Emma Mrs R25 Carroll

All in all, this site looks very interesting, and one that needs more exploring. Click on the title link to visit them.

Family Trees and Ancestry.Com

(Disclaimer: I have been a subscriber to Ancestry.com for several years, and as a paying customer, feel that I can give an honest critique of the service.)

First, I believe that their charges are too high for a lot of researchers. I do not know what a membership permitting access to everything on the website would cost but, I have access to just a few records, including the census records, and pay over $200 a year. A SWAG is that access to everything would cost over $1000 a year. I have no idea what a fair price would be, but I suspect that it would be something less than a grand!

I don't know about the rest of you, but I find the family trees on Ancestry mostly useless. They all appear to be duplicates of each other, with no sources given. If a source is given, it is typically an FTW or GEDCOM file that someone else has already posted there. If a legitimate source is cited, it is often incorrect (I have seen the Social Security Death Index used as source for death date of someone who died in the 1700's!). I have often wondered why some researchers are so opposed to providing sources.

One thing I like about Ancestry is their census collection. For the most part, the indices to the census files are good, but I caution users to not use exact surname spellings. I most often use the soundex for searching, then narrow down large returns by including additional search parameters.

One good feature is the inclusion of other family members in some indices. For example, if I am searching for John Smith, and know that he had a wife named Marion, and a son named Frank, I can quickly look down the index search return for John Smiths, and look for the one with family members with those names.

I do not depend entirely on the indices prepared by Ancestry. Sometimes I know with certainty that a family is in a specific state and county, but the index cannot find them. Perhaps the person extracting information for the index just skipped them, or otherwise did not see them. It is in instances like this when I just have to page through the entire county, or township to find the family I am looking for. Ancestry does make provisions for reporting bad census information, but they don't make it easy to use. I am not sure what I do incorrectly, but the submission has failed each time I have attempted to send them corrected information.

One last thing: Their search engine, especially for old newspaper articles needs improvement (or, perhaps I'm using it incorrectly). But, when I enter a name like Francis Scott Key (extreme example), and get 50 hits for Francis Bacon, Scott Tissue, and Locksmiths, something is wrong.

Louisiana Library Connection

If you hold a valid library card to (nearly) any parish library in the state of Louisiana, you have access to some of the best free on-line genealogical resources available. I understand that this service is available throughout the United States, and your state library is probably a sponsor. Ask your local librarian, or contact your state library for more information.

By visiting the above link you will be taken to a generic library webpage where you select your library from a drop down list. On the next page you will be expected to enter a valid library card number. If successful, you will finally reach the "goodies" page.

I won't list all of the resources available, but here are some of the better choices:

~ Ancestry.com - Ancestry World Tree. This site has the following instructions:

This link is only used for updating the Ancestry World Tree records tied to your library. The subscription-only features of Ancestry.com are not available from home; you must come into the library to use them.

~ News Bank - Full text backfiles of 7 Louisiana and 10 national newspapers.

Louisiana Newspapers: Times Picayune, 1989 - current; Baton Rouge Advocate, 1986 - current; Lafayette Daily Advertiser, 1999 - current; Monroe News Star, 1999 - current; Shreveport Times, 1999 - current; Alexandria Daily Town Talk, 1999 - current; Opelousas Daily World, 1999 - current; Lake Charles American Press, (when negotiated)

Other newspapers are available, and all are good sources for obituaries.

~ Heritage Quest On-Line - Search Census records, Books, PERSI, and selected Revolutionary War pension and bounty land warrants.

Not all census years, and not all states have been completed, but the interface is better than Ancestry.com (my opinion), and image download in PDF or TIFF format is very easy. If you can't find the person you are looking for on Ancestry, check Heritage Quest. I've found many families there that have not been properly indexed at Ancestry.