Since I came up with nothing in the 1880 census for San Francisco and the 1850 Census for New Hampshire, I decided to revisit the 1870 and 1860 census. I was pretty sure my family was in San Francisco at that time. As long as they didn’t avoid census enumerators, I should be able to find them.
My first attempt was to find Martin and Catherine Kelly in 1870. Much to my chagrin, there were two Martin Kelly’s married to Catherine’s living in San Francisco! Hopefully, it would be very clear.
One of the families was mine! All the children were there, including Margaret, who shouldn’t have been. She had married a year before the census. However, I’ve seen married children listed with their parents before. Perhaps it’s a misunderstanding of “how many children do you have living with you?”.
According to the 1870 census, they had a child born in CA ca 1856. So, that clearly means the family was in San Francisco for the 1860 Census. I took a look through the soundex and found the Kelly’s in San Francisco in 1860. The birth information on the 1870 and 1860 census confirmed that I had another locality to deal with. The family didn’t migrate from New Hampshire to California. They took a side trip to Massachusetts where a couple of children were born. With any luck, I would find them in Massachusetts in the 1850 census.
Here are the children and where they were born:
Margaret 1849 NH
Catherine 1852 MA
Michael 1853 MA
John 1856 CA
Mary 1859 CA
Winifred 1860 CA
Matthew 1862 CA
Ellen 1866 CA
Josephine 1872 CA
It is still possible that the family was in New Hampshire and that I was looking for the wrong thing. Only time and more research would tell.
