Deep into researching and correcting some of my genealogy… my mother’s side… and what I notice is how disruptive the move to North America in colonial times was for family histories.

Tracing back ancestry in this country is pretty straightforward through the 1850 census, and even before then the older states had ways of recording vital data. Back around the time of the first census (1790) paths start to break down. The big gap, once bridged, from 1850 back to the Revolutionary war, gives way to immigration stories. For those of us with a Colonial past the good news is if you can find someone from New England, as the historical societies up there have been relentlessly researching this stuff for a century, all to prove the elusive claim that one’s ancestors was on the Mayflower.

For those of us with a European ancestry I’m noticing quite a range of quality in the recording of the past. This has driven home to me the idea of a “name” and exactly what one name is supposed to mean, and why it was important to pass it on.

Also, the impact of illiteracy gets felt very quickly once one goes before the 20th century. I doubt if our goal of universal education and literacy is adequately appreciated by most people today.

And speak of appreciating new things… in the censuses of the before universal suffrage the census takers had to record who in the household had a voting franchise - often just the male head. Back then voting meant something more to people, I think, then it does today. I wonder, when I see the low voter turnouts that we have in most elections, if voting rights were taking away from a majority of Americans would they miss them?