Online Census

Once again I've learned not to stop with a census search on Ancestry.  I was looking for the Roger Tolles family.   Roger appears in the 1820 Census in Phelps Twp., Ontario County, New York.  He is said to have died "when Charles was only 7" so about 1830.

Ancestry doesn't find him in any other census.  His wife was Mariah Dean so, if Roger died  before the 1830 census she should appear with the children, probaly near by.  

Searching for Mariah Tolles with every imaginable variation of the spelling of Tolles doesn't get a hit at all on Ancestry and Heritage Quest has no index for 1830 but I know she must have been there.

Going to the printed index for the 1830 New York Census (available in the Gen Room) I find a Mariah Toles with this listing in the index:  TOLES, MARIAH   YA_ES  314   BENTON.  I remember that her son Henry had married in Penn Yan, Yates County, New York in 1848.  This must surely be her.

So, how to get to the actual census page?  Heritage Quest Online has the entire census from 1790 to 1930.  It is much like microfilm, no index, just crank through and hope you find something before your eyes blur over.  There is, however an option to SEARCH BY PAGE NUMBER.  Great, page 314.

Big snag, they want a roll number before you can enter the page.  Roll number is not provided by the printed index.

Here's how to get around the problem:  Selecting BROWSE and filling in the date, 1830, state, New York, County, Yates and location, Benton takes you to the first page of the Benton census and provides this: Series: M19 Roll 117 Page 291. Now, with the roll number go back to SEARCH BY PAGE NUMBER.  Enter the date, the roll number and page 314 from the printed index.

There it is.  One more clue to the Tolles family.  She is shown age 30-40 with six children, 3 girls and 3 boys.  This pretty much confirms Roger's death as before 1830.   The question, what happened to the 6 children from Roger's first marriage?

I pick Mariah (aka Ara Mariah) up again in the 1850 Census living with her daughter Harriet (Tolles) Morrow in Pulteney, Steuben County, NY then the whole family moves to Indiana.

Big surprise.  Both Mariah and Roger are listed in the  "Cemeteries of Steuben County Indiana" as being buried in the Circle Hill Cemetery, Angola, Indiana, Sec 7 Lot 14.

How this is possible I do not know.

On to the next hill ;-)   If this was easy it wouldn't be any fun.

Jerry