Re: Joseph L. Rossignol
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In reply to:
Re: Joseph L. Rossignol
Esther Robbins 8/09/08
Hi, thank you for your census data. I see William was born in Canada. He was probably baptised as Guillaume which translates to William. Census records are a great way to track down people and get many details of their lives. When it comes to ages however, they are seldom reliable as most people were illiterate with a 6th grade education at best. The census taker, although sworn to be truthful, often was left to guess peoples' ages. Now as then, many people look older than they are, a more fortunate few look younger than their actual number of years (not my case). Another problem with censuses is that children were often placed in other families as servants, in house or in the fields. So one year they are recorded in the family but come the next census, poof, they're gone and you are left to look up all the local families to see if you can't find them there. Sometimes you'll find them several villages away. As always, genealogical research requires lots of time and mayby more patience.