Re: Searching for Sister Marie (Mary) Kilpatrick 1900 etc
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In reply to:
Searching for Sister Marie (Mary) Kilpatrick 1900 etc
Hattie Murphy 12/19/09
Dear Hattie,
I forgot to include the census as a resource.It's possible to find nuns on the US Census.They have to fill it out just like everyone else.It can be a little tricky to find them.A lot of nuns don't use Mary when they sign their names.Sr. Kilpatrick might be Sr. M. Joseph Kilpatrick.I don't know if they used their title "Sister".I did a little preliminary searching and didn't find anyone listed as Sister.The search engines don't work well with a female named Joseph or M. Joseph or even Marie Joseph.
If you find her, she should be living with other women who are not related.If you read through them, you will probably find which one is the mother superior.Along the left side, usually, will be the address of the convent.It looks sort of like a boarding house or hotel listing.
It is possible to find someone on the census with just a name, but it will be a lot easier if you know her approximate birthdate and birth place.
You can access most of the censuses since 1850 for free on the LDS Pilot Family Search site.http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html#startTheyhttp://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html#startThey let you download the image of the census page, too.Ancestry's search engine is a little better.Ancestry is expensive, but you can usually access it for free at your public library.The librarians can help you.Ancestry is an enormous database of genealogical material, including all the censuses.It's at www.ancestry.com
Sincerely,
Kate