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I love to look through census reports. You can find great things in a census. I have been searching for Robert's family on census records ever since I started. I can find the him when he is older but I can't find him in a census with his parents. For a long time I thought he was an only child. His obituary didn't mention any siblings, only his parents.

And of course you can tell I have found a gold mine of information through the census. I tracked my great great grandfather back and forth looking for his parents because the trail stopped with them. I couldn't ever find them recorded. One day my friend called to tell me that she might have found a brother of Robert my gg-grandfather. So I searched and searched and low and behold it is his brother!

So now I searched the brother back and forth. This is were the Civil War pension records came in so handy. I confirmed that they were brother because his mother filed for the pension. I got a look at the whole pension and found out when his father died and that his mother remarried.

Then I looked harder at the census records. I found a sister Robert lived with and then followed her backwards only to find another sister on the same census as the first sister. I then followed that sister forward and found that these sisters and their families moved together. Any time there was a move both families moved! And both sisters named their children after their parents or siblings.

So be sure to check the whole census. You might just find family you didn't know you had! Follow each of the children, you can find lots of things this way. Sometimes you can find a parent living with a sibling! Keep looking and later or sooner you will find something great!

And a great place to look though the census reports is at the library. You can long on from home and they have a free searchable data base called Heritage Quest. They also have other great books and things to look through!