Normally, we work our family trees backwards from present to past. Sometimes we get impatient. My Kellys were supposed to be in New Hampshire in 1849, so I jump the census years to see if the Kellys were there in 1850. I searched through many, many Kellys. Unfortunately, no one matched my family in Manchester or anywhere else in New Hampshire.
This meant that I would not be able to take the easy way out. I was going to have to search for the Kellys in all census years. My first stop was the 1880 Census. Martin and Catherine Kelly did not appear in the index. I looked at the pages around where Thomas and Margaret Jones lived with no luck.
I have no reason to believe that Martin Kelly was not in San Francisco in 1880. I was going to have to skip over 1880 and move to 1870 to see if I could pick up the family’s trail.
