What's In A Name, Mr. Hutcherson?

By Wilton Hudgens

Monday, 23 July 2018

Do any of you out there have problems locating ancestors or relatives in public records when you know exactly where they lived? Do you pull your hair out (if you have any left) trying to get search engines on sites like FamilySearch.org or Ancestry.com to work for you? There are several different methods that I've found to work for my own research. One example is to go through each page of a US Federal Census carefully. I know...this takes a ridiculous amount of time that all of us don't have. Another method I have is to purposely mangle the name that I'm looking for in as many different ways as possible when feeding it into a search engine. Try to imagine how people (literate or not) might completely miss the name and regurgitate it.

I searched for years for my Paternal 3rd Great Grandparents - Robert W. and Mary Rose (Pitman) Hudgens in the 1860 US Federal Census. Their son, Frederick Mortimer Hudgens, was living in Carroll Parish, Louisiana at the time. Previously, they had been living with the family of Cullen Sims in Mississippi. After searching for them in Mississippi in 1860 and having no luck, I began going through Louisiana parishes near to Frederick Mortimer Hudgens. I remembered how people have failed miserably at repeating my name for my whole life. The things they would say left nothing to the imagination...Mr. Hutcherson, Mr. Wunston, Wendel, Mr. Huggins, and so on. In 2014, I used these variations to search in Louisiana and finally came across something that caught my eye. The 1860 Madison Parish US Federal Census listed a Robert W. and Mary Huggins that fit the ages of my 3rd Greats pretty close. However, they were listed as being from Georgia which didn't match up. Robert's occupation was named as Overseer.

I recalled that my 3rd Greats had owned two slaves according to the 1850 US Federal Census in Mississippi. After plugging the name Hudgens into the search engines in, I came up with an 1860 US Federal Census (Slave Schedule) in Carroll Parish for Frederick Mortimer Hudgens (my 2nd Great Grandfather). There was a young couple and child listed as being owned by Mary R. Hudgins of Madison Parish and employed by F. M. Hudgins. This was the proof that one hopes for a lifetime to find. It proved that the listing of Robert W. and Mary R. Huggins in Madison Parish in 1860 was most likely an error and that their name was truly Hudgens.

Remember, we're not just up against errors committed by the original record keeper...the people that are transcribing these records for the search engines on genealogy sites can make mistakes as well. It doesn't hurt to try the page by page method. By the way...for anyone out there who can't afford Ancestry.com, the complete US Federal Census through 1940 is available for free download at the Internet Archive at https://archive.org.

My most recent success regarding this subject was locating my biological maternal grandmother, "Betty" Paolina "Pauline" Stella (Magliolo) Lester Pierce Harlow Chodak, in the 1940 US Federal Census. Since I tracked down my Magliolo family in 2009, I've wondered where my grandmother was in 1940. I found her brother, Thomas Magliolo, listed in 1940 as an inmate of the Tennessee Industrial School in Davidson County, Tennessee. Family members had told me various stories of my grandmother being sent away, in a juvenile detention center, at Green Gables (later St. Peter's Orphanage), etc. I was told by my cousin Antoinette about my grandmother, "Grandma couldn't control Aunt Pauline, and she wouldn't go to school."

Finding the rest of the family wasn't a problem. They were there on the 1940 US Federal Census for Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee. Their name like mine was constantly mangled by record keepers. They were Sicilian Immigrants that fell through the cracks sometimes. My grandmother's sister, Beneditta "Bernice" (Magliolo) Barone, said that people in Memphis had spit on her and her family.

For some reason, I wasn't finding my grandmother. I kept searching for most of the next ten years off and on again. Last night, I thought to look again in the 1940 US Federal Census in Memphis, TN for my grandmother. This time, I used Pauline "Magolio" because of how some of the family members said the name Magliolo. I also kept my eyes on names that were listed as "inmates" due to the stories I'd been told over the years.

In the first page that popped up on FamilySearch, I had her. The name was listed as Pauline "Magolin" and as an inmate. When the page came up, the institution was named as Convent of Sisters of the Good Shepherd in District 2, Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee. This Pauline was eleven years old. I had found where my grandmother was. I'm not sure if a judge sent her here or her mother did, but I was sure this was my grandmother.

It's important to never give up hope of finding your ancestors or relatives in the records. They are there many times and disguised twice over by the people that made mistakes in the original records and then by those who later transcribed the records for online use. If you have to go through something page by page, do it. When something isn't working, try looking at it in a different way. If you don't go, you won't know.

Sources:

www.ancestry.com

www.familysearch.org

"United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-6SMS-77B?cc=1401638&wc=95R6-6TG%3A1031309501%2C1031873401%2C1031873402 : 9 April 2016), Mississippi > Newton > Newton county > image 7 of 82; citing NARA microfilm publication M432 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/8055/MSM432_387-0385?pid=1137189&backurl=https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?_phsrc%3DOqE11%26_phstart%3DsuccessSource%26usePUBJs%3Dtrue%26indiv%3D1%26qh%3Dqv7ewD3Z/fMpcY6vVWTatQ%253D%253D%26db%3D1850slaveschedules%26gss%3Dangs-d%26new%3D1%26rank%3D1%26gsfn%3Drobt%26gsfn_x%3D0%26gsln%3Dhudgins%26gsln_x%3D0%26msrpn__ftp%3DMississippi,%2520USA%26msrpn%3D27%26MSAV%3D1%26uidh%3Dpa5%26pcat%3D35%26fh%3D0%26h%3D1137189%26recoff%3D13%252014%26ml_rpos%3D1&treeid=&personid=&hintid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=OqE11&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true

https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/7668/lam653_427-0748?pid=2996395&backurl=https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?_phsrc%3DOqE1%26_phstart%3DsuccessSource%26usePUBJs%3Dtrue%26indiv%3D1%26qh%3DIi8KuY9TCDApylRGpIBqeQ%253D%253D%26db%3D1860slaveschedules%26gss%3Dangs-d%26new%3D1%26rank%3D1%26msT%3D1%26gsln%3Dhudgins%26gsln_x%3D0%26msrpn__ftp%3DEast%2520Carroll%2520Parish,%2520Louisiana,%2520USA%26msrpn%3D939%26MSAV%3D1%26uidh%3Dpa5%26pcat%3D35%26fh%3D3%26h%3D2996395%26recoff%3D13%26ml_rpos%3D4&treeid=&personid=&hintid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=OqE1&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true

https://ia800206.us.archive.org/28/items/acpl_slavecensus_01_reel01/acpl_slavecensus_01_reel01.pdf

"United States Census, 1860," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9B9J-ZGC?cc=1473181&wc=7QGH-Y2L%3A1589427264%2C1589422567%2C1589422206 : 24 March 2017), Louisiana > Madison > Not Stated > image 8 of 14; from "1860 U.S. Federal Census - Population," database, Fold3.com (http://www.fold3.com : n.d.); citing NARA microfilm publication M653 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

"United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-89M1-DW1N?cc=2000219&wc=QZXB-284%3A792528401%2C799218201%2C799320601%2C799332601 : accessed 23 July 2018), Tennessee > Shelby > Civil District 1, Memphis, Ward 8 > 98-34 Civil District 1, Memphis City Ward 8 (Tract 23 - part), Elizabeth Club for Working Girls > image 17 of 32; citing Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012.

"United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9M1-8ZZ2?cc=2000219&wc=QZXB-5DL%3A792528401%2C793418801%2C792578101%2C794153201 : accessed 23 July 2018), Tennessee > Davidson > Civil District 6 > 19-18 Civil District 6, Tennessee Industrial School > image 7 of 22; citing Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012.

"United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-89M1-D6LN?cc=2000219&wc=QZXB-LGF%3A792528401%2C799218201%2C799501201%2C799521501 : accessed 23 July 2018), Tennessee > Shelby > Civil District 2, Memphis, Ward 17 > 98-102 Civil District 2, Memphis City Ward 17 (Tract 34 - part), Convent of Sisters of the Good Shepherd > image 3 of 8; citing Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012.