It's Treasure Chest Thursday - time to look in my digital image files to see what treasures I can find for my family history and genealogy musings.
The treasure today is the 1840 United States Census record for Isaac Lanfear (one of my 4th great-grandfathers) in Lorraine, Jefferson County, New York.
The Isaac Lanfear household information:
The extracted information for the Isaac Lanfear household (with my educated guess as to the names of the family members, assuming that they are all from the Isaac Lanfear family):
* Name of head of family: Isaac Lanfear
* Males aged 15-20: one (probably son John born 1824)
* Males aged 20-30: one (probably son Latham (born 1814)
* Males aged 50-60: one (certainly Isaac born 1777)
* Females aged 10-15: one (probably daughter Sarah born 1828)
* Females aged 15-20: one (probably daughter Malinda (born 1823)
* Females aged 20-30: one (probably daughter Eleanor (born 1818) or Polly (born 1814) or Susan (born 1812)
* Females aged 50-60: one ( certainly wife Rosina age 59)
* Total: 7
There are five living children for the Isaac and Rosian (Laun) Lanfear family in 1840, but several children had married before 1840 (daughters Anna and Elizabeth had married before 1840).
The source citation for this entry (census date 1 June 1840) is:
1840 United States Federal Census, Jefferson County, New York, Lorraine town, page 4 (image 11 of 24), Isaac Lanfear household; imaged, "1840 United States Federal Census," Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/8057/records/2390522 : accessed 15 June 2023); original image on NARA Microfilm publication M-704.
Some readers may wonder "why post pre-1850 U.S. census records - you can't be sure who is in the household." That's true, but it can still provide some clues to the age of the head of household, and tracking a household through the years may indicate family additions or subtractions, plus narrowing the location of the residence by using the neighbors. This is especially useful for same-name problems in a community.
In this case, I'm still searching for the birth parents of Devier J. Lamphear Smith (1839-1894, my 2nd great-grandfather) whose name was changed in Wisconsin from Lamphear to Smith in 1866, and is identified as an adopted child in the name change record and Ranslow Smith's will (his adoptive father). One of the young women in the 1840 census may be the mother of Devier. Unfortunately, a male child age 1-5 is not enumerated in this record. This is a "negative result" -- an expected result was not supported by the record; it was also "negative evidence" since the child was not in the record, and therefore may be enumerated elsewhere; one hypothesis is that the child was born in May 1839 and adopted by the Smith family before the census was taken.
Another clue that may be helpful is that the person enumerated just above Isaac Lanfear is Philander Smith, who is probably the one born in 1807 in Jefferson county, New York. I have not been able to connect Philander Smith to Ranslow Smith but they may have been related.
I share significant DNA segments, consistent with descent from common 4th great-grandparents, with descendants of Isaac and Rosina (Laun) Lanfear. If Devier's mother or father was a child of Isaac and Rosina Lanfear, then Isaac and Rosina would be my 4th great-grandparents.
=============================
The URL for this post is:
Copyright (c) 2026, Randall J. Seaver
Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post. Share it on X, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below. Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com. All comments are moderated, and may not appear immediately after posting.
Subscribe to receive a free daily email from Genea-Musings using www.Blogtrottr.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment