Wednesday, February 17, 2016

County Lines

I was traveling in the mountains with my husband this weekend and I realized that the county lines that was once in an area, are no longer the lines. County lines have changed over the years and I am not so sure that it does not create a lot of issues. I have been looking for certain family members and I try to find them in one county, but now I am thinking I need to check the county lines and see if they were changed in that time period. It would explain so much.

I do not often think about the county lines and how they have changed over the years. I would love to have an old map of the United States and its counties. In this way, I could find out where the lines were, and compare them to now. It might make a difference in finding lost family members or not.

My family has not ever had a lot of money, except back in the days before America. They may not be on the books because they were in debtors prison, or maybe they moved and I cannot find them because of that. Moving was not always a hard thing. Land was a grab bag and one could just homestead almost anywhere.

This makes it hard to find family at times. If they move and leave no forwarding address, how does one go about finding the elusive family? This is where one must really comb the census records, even in areas that you did not know there was any family there. They may have been in another state in that ten year period. If that happens, well one must be prepared for anything, so you find them and YAY your family line goes on.

The important thing to remember is to not give up. Just because they are not in the county you expected, does not mean they are not somewhere. They have to be, right?

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