United States Census, 1850 - FamilySearch Historical Records/Known Issues

Known Issues
NOTE: To determine which digital records are likely to be found within a collection or to find missing images, see, Using Film Notes in the Catalog to determine the content of a final browse point in Historical Records (56000).

NOTE: In some cases, the enumerator did not record a town name within a county. Since Township or other division of county is the final browse point structure, and no town name was given, the indexer repeated the county name, as instructed.

Question #1: Some records are missing. Where can the records be viewed? Answer #1: See answers below for information about known missing records and respective film numbers, if available, or alternate online location:


 * Pennsylvania &gt; Philadelphia &gt; Spring Garden Wards 5-7 are missing. Access to HeritageQuest Online to view the images is available at a local family history center.
 * Georgia &gt; Decatur &gt; Decatur county images are blurred and illegible.

Question #2: The Township or other division of county browse point title does not properly reflect the actual digital record content. How can I determine what digital records are likely to be found within a collection? Answer #2: The list of known browse point discrepancies describes the Township or other division of county existing in the collection:


 * Illinois &gt; McHenry &gt; Benton records include the current township of Burton. Originally, Burton was settled as English Prairie in 1836. Settlers renamed the town Benton, but soon discovered that a post office and township of Benton already existed in Illinois. The town name was changed to Burton on December 28, 1850 after the census had been recorded.
 * Tennessee &gt; Smith &gt;Smith county and Tennessee &gt; Stewart &gt; Stewart county are located on the same microfilm and were intermingled by the enumerator. Below is a listing of the correct distribution of the two county images:

&gt; Smith &gt; Smith county:    Images 1-255 and Images 309-345 are Smith county records. Images 256-308 are Stewart county records. &gt; Stewart &gt; Stewart county    Images 1-49 are Smith county records. mages 50-167 are Stewart county records

Question #3: Some family members are not listed with the family unit or household in the record detail page. How can I find all the family members? Answer #3: Always view the original image to validate correct family relationships. To work around the problem, search by last name and residence or event place. On the record detail page, compare the Line Number and Household ID. To refine the search, include the Film Number. Families are grouped sequentially on the same image or an adjacent image. If a family unit begins on the bottom of a census page, and continues at the top of the next census page, the family members are generally not grouped together if the second page was erroneously listed under a different township. In this case the next page, or previous page with the remaining family members will not come up because of the different township. In some cases, the enumerator recorded entries that are not in sequence, or the enumerator jumped back and forth between townships. In other cases, the pages were out of order when filmed, pages are missing, or pages are cut off. View the images and watch for consecutive page numbers to assure correct family relationships. Finally, the indexer simply failed to record a new Household ID resulting in incorrect family units, especially when the members are continued on a new page. Order the film number from the record detail page to view the original image.

Question #4: The record detail page is linked to the wrong image. How can I find the correct image? Answer #4: From the record detail page, use either the Event Place, House Number, Household ID, or Film Number information, or a combination of any of the search criteria, to find the correct image by clicking the right or left scroll arrow.

If additional problems are encountered with the collection, you can report them at [mailto:support@familysearch.org support@familysearch.org].


 * If searching the collection: please include the name of the collection, and all search criteria used, including name, event, dates and places.
 * If browsing the collection: please include the full browse path you used to get to where the problem occurred. The browse path is located above the image viewer window. For example: United States Census, 1850 &gt; Arkansas &gt; St. Francis &gt; Johnson &gt; Image 11 of 15.
 * For technical issues: please include operating system and browser version.

Return to the United States Census, 1850 (FamilySearch Historical Records) article.

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