Genealogy Search Tips

The US Federal Census and the
Search for George Kishbaugh

In a previous Case Study using Online California Death Index and US Federal Census we learned that Catherine Holbrook was born in Pennsylvania in 1877, died in San Francisco, California in 1962 and that her parents were George and Martha Kishbaugh.

To learn more about Catherine's parents we decided to go to Heritage Quest Online and search US Federal Census records. The Heritage Quest databases are available at many public libraries and usually these databases can be be accessed from outside the library with the proper identification from a library card.

We started with the 1880 US Census where we discovered that both of Catherine's parents were born in Pennsylvania, George in about 1857 and Martha in about 1859. George is listed as a mine laborer and the family lived on Cornelia Street in Pittston, Pennsylvania according to the 1880 US Census.

We learned from the 1900 US Census that the Kishbaugh Family had moved to Los Angeles and that Martha had had 5 children and that 4 were alive in 1900. Beryl, Susie and Ata were living with the family and Catherine was living with her husband Jay Holbrook also in Los Angeles. So Sarah, who was born in 1879, must have died before 1900.

According to the 1910 US Census George and Martha were still living in Los Angeles, but all the children had left home and now the Kishbaughs had 3 roomers living with them. In 1910 Catherine and her husband Jay Holbrook were living in San Francisco and they had 3 children, Sidney, Walter and Emmet.

In the 1920 US Census we found that George and Martha Kishbaugh had moved to San Francisco and were living with their daughter Catherine Holbrook and her family, which included her husband Jay and children Sidney, Walter and Lawrence.




Genealogy Search Tip

Find a Death Date

You can usually find an individual's death date by looking at cemetery information. For example, you might go directly to the cemetery where the death date might be printed on your ancestor's tombstone.

You can also contact the cemetery manager or a local genealogical society, library or historical society. Some of these organizations might have photos of tombstones and/or transcriptions of tombstone information.

See our discussion of Cemetery Records for additional information.








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