Sheriff William Preston's identity crisis (2.02 of 3)

Mistaken identities and relationships often lead to improper genealogy links and brick walls. The series, "Sheriff William Preston's identity crisis," explains how a group of researchers ultimately collaborated to better identify William Preston, and how that reformed identification led the group to his ancestral family.


Part 1-No shortage of inconsistencies, 10 June 2011
A collection of inconsistent information written about about William Preston, the first sheriff of Williams County, Ohio.

Part 2-Driven to a more historical account (8 10 postings), 16 June 2011
Genealogy is a journey. The second article in this series presents particular information we used to break down the brick wall. The various postings mention how the records were discovered, questioned and evaluated to better identify Sheriff William Preston.
2.01 William and his Miss Butler (marriage)
2.02 He survives (census)
2.03 The Butler did it! (identifying our Butler family)
2.04 I do declare, and he did! (declaration)
2.05 Death plus 30 (probate)
2.06 Of brothers and soldiers (about John Preston)
2.07 You do the math (about William C. Preston and the King)
2.08 One good deed (and the long road home)
2.09 Through the peep hole (the larger family)
2.10 Rummaging about Rumney

Part 3-Putting it all together - Part 3A

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PART 2-Driven to a more historical account

2.02 He survives

Despite numerous historical references to William Preston's demise in about 1828 (years before my ancestor was born), we find his name reported in the 1830 U.S. Census--at Defiance, then Williams County.

This William Preston's age is reported as "of forty and under fifty" (indirectly, born 1780-1790). There are three (3) children in the home, all said under the age of five. Humm...

Working with early U.S. census can be tricky business. This census has been reviewed many times by researchers, in part because of what seems an extra young boy in the home. At different times, researchers have reviewed the handwritten numbers in this entry against the numbers in other entries. While it's not shown in the graphic, the enumerator for the Defiance 1830 census was John Perkins, possibly the same man who married William and Asenath in 1820.

What information do you usually note about early census?  Do you make the effort to reconcile each entry against what you know about the family group? Do you check to see if the census was reported in alphabetical order? If it's not in alphabetical order, do you record the names of apparent neighbors or where you found others of the same surname in the same town?

P.S. Indexing gone wild. Years ago, I found William's census entry had been mis-indexed at Ancestry.com as "William Fuston," so I sent in a correction. Somehow the correction was entered to two different records. When I revisited the census more recently, the I found two William Prestons in the index at Ancestry. One is my William and the other, his apparent neighbor, William Gragham. Sigh.

<<< 2.01 Miss Butler <<< *** >>> 2.03 The Butler Did it! >>>