Re: A. A. Griffith living with Rape Family 1860 IL Sangamon
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In reply to:
Re: A. A. Griffith living with Rape Family 1860 IL Sangamon
Judith Arnn-Knight 10/14/11
I just read the same page you copied, you either took ancestry.com's page containing their incorrect translation of the census record as correct and either did not look close enough at the actual census page to interpret the information is there. The name is clearly Rape not Rope. I understand that when not in print the a and o can look much alike. However, usually when the connecting line from the a to the next letter is drawn down then continues to the viewers right it is an a not an o. If it was an o the line reaching out to the next letter would come almost straight accross to the next letter. Look closer and I hope you will see the difference. Secondly, as I told you the wife was from Davidson County, TN not East Prussia. Now I agree that the census taker's penmanship for Tennessee in that space was poor penmanship. However, I suggest you look further down the page at Henry's wifes Snodgrass relatives and compare what is more obvious Tennessee than Prussia and look back again at Polly's birth place and you will see they are clearly the same place. I know the penmanship in the census records is very often not as legible as it should be but if you take ancestry.com's version as the correct translation then you will end up with many errors in your genealogy. I do now know enough about your family to be helpful on the why the family members may have been in others households. In 1850 the census usually did not list the relationships of everyone in that household. However if you look at enough census records in the years following you will see names of other surnames in the home and more often than not they will be listed as servants, nieces or nephews, parents or some other title. On the page you are interested in those children in other families pages could have simply been visiting or there to play with that families children. The Census taker simply listed them when he saw them. John V. Reeb