How To find a missing person on census records

Do you have any tricks or tips for finding someone on a census when you can’t be sure where they lived at the time? My Great Grandfather, Frank (Francis) Alexander Oravits (Oravec/Oravitz) was born 1907 in Boonton New Jersey. I have him in the 1910,1920, and 1930 census. I know his first child was born in 1933 ( Joseph John Oravits ) so I assume he was married between 1930-1933 and I know his wife’s name was Sophie Krisanda. My goal with finding them on a census is I am trying to find information on his wife, such as a birth date/age. I assume that she grew up in Boonton NJ as well but I have nothing to substantiate that. I have searched for Sophie Krisanda’s born around the same time and around the same area and I have actually found multiple matches and any one of them could be the right one. I have one that I am suspicious is the correct one, Sophie Krisanda born in Montville NJ (about 5 min away according to google maps ) born in 1910. Just like my Great Grandfather, I can find her on the 1910, 1920, and 1930 census and then she simply vanishes. I can’t find either of them on ANY census, city directories, death records, obituaries in the paper… nothing. I was starting to think maybe they left the country but I have photos of my Grandfather and Great Aunt ( Frank and Sophie’s children ) as children and they are labeled as being taken in Boonton. I actually can’t even find much information on the children either except for my Grandfather, Joseph John Oravits, and that’s only after he joined the military. Anything before that is just a mystery. I wish so bad that I had learned all of this while I had the chance. Anyway, if you have any suggestions for me, could you please email me at launicafarms@yahoo.com? I would really appreciate it. I do love this genealogy stuff but I have to admit the roadblocks and holes are driving me crazy. It is so beyond frustrating when I have documentation such as an obituary that claims one thing and then I can’t find any way of proving it. Example, I have an obituary that claims by GGG Grandfather was a professor at Trinity College in Dublin, I haven’t been able to prove that as of yet, I have sifted through a couple 1,000 pages of archives with no luck so far. Even more frustrating, I have a family biography that my Great Grandfather wrote and even submitted for publication. He goes all of the way back to the 1600’s and goes into great detail about battles fought in the Revolutionary War by his Great Grandfather and beyond. The amount of information is staggering. He goes into detail about George Washington, General Lafayette, about dinners and all sorts of things. Of course, I haven’t been able to verify the first word of it. Maybe I am just not very good at this genealogy stuff. Anyway, like I said, any help would be greatly appreciated.

I have been looking for Cherry Emma Page (Cherry Emma Kight) my 3rd great-grandmother for ever and I find nothing. It is as if she never existed before her marriage to Benjamin J Kight. I have her birth date (May 11, 1859), marriage (Feb. 17, 1881 in Johnson Co., GA), children, and date of death (May 10, 1946), and burial place (Metter, Candler Co., GA), even a pic of her headstone, as well as a pic of her, Benjamin, and one daughter. However, I find no father, mother, or siblings listed anywhere. I have searched surrounding counties for families with the last name Page and nothing. Can you give me any suggestions?

I hope you can help me. I too have a maddeningly disappearing person on the census. My relative, William Gracy, was born in 1830 in Pittsburgh, PA. He’s listed as a “boy under 5” on the 1830 census under his father’s name, James Gracy, head-of-household. He appears as “boy under 10” in the 1840 census. He appears – finally! – by name, sort of (Wm Gracy), aged 20 in the 1850 census. Then…poof!…gone. The family had a burial plot in the city for family members and he’s not interred there (though several siblings are). So, he didn’t die in Pittsburgh, or anywhere nearby (since they moved nearby family to the plot). Here’s where things get a bit murky.

He supposedly next appears in Trujillo, Peru, South America, with the birth of his first child, a girl (Ana, named after his mother, Ann), in 1872. My great-grandfather (his son Jorge, aka George, after his brother who died in the Civil War) was born in 1881 and he had said that his father died in c.1893 and is buried, predictably, in Peru.

Now, here’s my biggest problem. All the papers in Peru said his name was William Gracey and he was from Pittsburgh, PA, born c.1830. The William Gracy that I found in the census records in Pittsburgh, PA is the only really suitable match, but we can’t be 100% sure until we know what happened to this William Gracy between 1850 and 1872! I don’t want to be spending time researching the wrong family, or the wrong branch. We need some way to verify that William Gracy of Pittsburgh is MY William Gracey who seems to have travelled VERY far from home.

Questions of what port he may have left from?, why did he leave in the first place?, was he a Civil War veteran or a draft dodger?, etc., etc. Did the William Gracy I found die somewhere else, like the Civil War, or get married and move elsewhere, and I’m barking up the wrong family tree?

One more note of possible interest, my grandfather always asserted that “Gracey” was an “English” name. We assume my grandfather meant British. This is odd, because all the Graceys we’ve ever been able to find are Irish (including William Gracy’s grandparents, John and Margaret Gracy, both born in Ireland). However, William’s mother, Ann Williams, was born in England and was, therefore, “English”. A misunderstanding? Hint? Clue? We don’t know yet.

Any ideas? Advice on how to find this sneaky ancestor of mine?

My grandfather was married and I found his wife on the 1920 census as head of household and divorced. I have used every avenue I can think of to find him. I know he was living because he married my grandmother in 1923 and my dad was born 1925. I found his only brother, but he was not in that household. I looked in his hometown and didn’t find him. Those are the only two places I thought he lived. He signed up for draft in 1918 with his wife signing the form as well. Then he drops out of sign until 1923. I am trying to find the daughter he and his first wife had. Mysteriously, his brother and wife found a baby girl on their doorstep and adopted her. I have found some of her descendants through Ancestry. The only person listed in household of his first wife in 1920 is herself. I wonder if the girl his brother adopted was my grandfather’s daughter by his first marriage (my dad’s half-sister). I have never known any relatives from that side of my family because my grandfather died when my dad was 7 and all communication stopped when my grandmother remarried. The other quandary I face is my great grandfather. My grandfather and his brother carried the last name of their mother. I don’t know if they had the same father, but she didn’t marry until years later. I have no idea who my dad’s grandfather was. Any suggestions you can provide to find out who my great grandfather was and how to find my grandfather and his daughter would be greatly appreciated!!!

On the 1940 census I am listed but my twin sister is not listed with the family!