Finding Entries using a Flawed Index

When you cannot locate someone in an index, try searching with only a first name or view every name in the entire location.  Depending on the commonality of the name and the size of the potential search area, this may be a cumbersome task, but when a thorough researcher needs a record, this is the technique.

Patrick Joyce and his first wife and children were finally located in the 1865 New York State Census without using their last name.

The criteria was to search Pawling, Dutchess County, New York for this family:
- father Patrick
- mother Mary or Margaret
- and at least two children, Mary and Adelia or Delia.

The index at Ancestry.com produced only 1,694 people living in Pawling in 1865.  I forwarded to the J surnames in hopes that at least the first letter was recorded correctly.

Found them!

The Joyce surname was transcribed for the index as JAIN.  When you view the actual record (always look at the record, not just the index!), the name was probably spelled JOICE, a variant of Joyce.

It is great to get another glimpse of Margaret Campbell, wife of Patrick Joyce.  She died in 1870  when her skirt was caught as she stepped from a moving train to not be separated from her child.

Adelia was listed as Cordelia.  In the 1870 federal census, she was Adelia.  In the 1875 New York State census, she was Delia.  My grandmother referred to her as Delia Joyce, her paternal grandmother.