When trying to correlate information from multiple records to confirm the identity of the subject of the records, you will often find that the information does not agree completely. In these cases, the only way to identify the subjects as those you are researching may be to correlate all of the information contained in the two records, as a whole.
Consider the following case, for example:
In the 1880 U. S. federal census, the household of William Waters in Baltimore, Maryland, contains the following inhabitants:
- Wm. Waters, black, age 40 years
- Cornelia [Waters], black, age 39 years, wife
- Caroline [Waters], black, age 20 years, daughter
- Charles [Waters], black, age 16 years, son
- Augustus [Waters], black, age 14 years, son
- Nellie [Waters], black, age 12 years, daughter
- Louis [Waters], black, age 10 years, son
- Bessie [Waters], black, age 8 years, daughter
- Frank [Waters], black, age 6 years, son
- Virginia [Waters], black, age 4 years, daughter
- Carrie [Waters], black, age 3 years, daughter
- Adele [Waters], black, age 1 year, daughter
- Augustus Ridgely, black, age 16 years, nephew
- Gertrude [Ridgely], black, age 8 years, niece
- Catharine Williams, black, age 34 years, boarder[1]
Compare this household with the following household in 1870:
- Otho Hagan, white, age 35 years
- Cornelia [Hagan], white, age 27 years
- Caroline [Hagan], white, age 11 years
- Charley [Hagan], white, age 5 years
- Augustus [Hagan], white, age 4 years
- Mary [Hagan], white, age 2 years
- Catherine Williams, black, age 23 years[2]
The only similarity between these two records is the presence of a Catherine/Catharine Williams in both households. Yet these are the same family. How do we know? By analysis and correlation of the information.
Look at the two records side-by-side:
- Cornelia Hagan, white, age 27 years (1870) = Cornelia Waters, black, age 39 years (1880)
- Caroline Hagan, white, age 11 years (1870) = Caroline Waters, black, age 20 years (1880)
- Charles Hagan, white, age 5 years (1870) = Charles Waters, black, age 16 years (1880)
- Augustus Hagan, white, age 4 years (1870) = Augustus Waters, black, age 14 years (1880)
Is this enough to prove the identity of this family? Not by itself. But we must continue to search for other records.
The most revealing is in the Baltimore city marriage records:
- On 12 December 1878, “Wm. Waters,” age 39 years, colored, widower, married “Cornelia Hagan,” age 36 years, colored, widow, in Baltimore.[3]
These three records clearly confirm the identities of these families. Often, it is only through the correlation of multiple records that the identities of the subjects of records can be known with certainty.
If you are interested in throwing more trouble into the mix, take a look at the following record, from the 1860 U. S. Census:
- Caroline Ridgeley, mulatto, age 51 years
- Augustus [Ridgeley], mulatto, age 29 years
- Cornelius [Ridgeley], mulatto, age 28 years
- Arthur Harkins, mulatto, age 25 years
- Caroline [Harkins], mulatto, age 5 months
- Cornelius [Harkins], mulatto, age 22 years[4]
In this record, “Arthur Harkins” is actually “Otho Hagan” and “Cornelius Harkins” is his wife “Cornelia Hagan.” Their daughter Caroline, the only one expected to be alive at this point, appears as the infant “Caroline Harkins.”
Caroline Ridgely was Cornelia’s mother. In 1844, Victoire Vincendiere of Frederick County, Maryland, manumitted her 39-year-old slave Caroline and her 5-year-old daughter Cornelia.[5] In Victoire’s 1854 will she refers to her slave “coloured slave Augustus (son of Carolina whom I have heretofore manumitted).” She bequeaths Augustus to her nephew Enoch Louis Lowe, who was Governor of the state of Maryland from 1851 to 1854.[6] On 16 June 1857 E. Louis Lowe manumitted “mulatto man Slave Augustus (commonly Known as Augustus Ridgely) son of Carolina a free mulatto Woman he being the Same who was bequeathed to me in and by the last will and testament of Victoire Vincendiere.”[7]
This series of records provides the surname “Ridgely” to the family of the slave Caroline, and provides relationships between Caroline, Augustus, and Cornelia. If each record were considered in isolation, the history of this family could not be determined. However, by correlating information from all of the records, the astute researcher now has a history of the early life of Cornelia (Ridgely) Hagan Waters.
SOURCES:
[1] 1880 U. S. Census, Baltimore City, Maryland, population schedule, Part of 2nd Precinct, 13th Ward, enumeration district 114, page 19, dwelling 164, family 218, Wm Waters household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed Jul 2011); citing NARA microfilm publication T9, roll 501, FHL microfilm no. 1,254,501.
[2] 1870 U. S. Census, Baltimore City, Maryland, population schedule, Tenth Ward, Baltimore City post office, page 205, dwelling 1077, family 2160, Otho Hagan household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed May 2011); citing NARA microfilm publication M593, roll 575, FHL microfilm no. 552,074.
[3] Baltimore City Court of Common Pleas, Marriage Record IFR 6, ff. 552–553, Waters to Hagan (1878); MSA C214-6, MdHR 20,221-6; Maryland State Archives, Annapolis.
[4] 1860 U. S. Census, Baltimore City, Maryland, population schedule, 12th Ward, Baltimore City post office, page 27, dwelling 151, family 190, Caroline Ridgeley household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed Jun 2011); citing NARA microfilm publication M653, roll 463.
[5] Frederick County Court, Land Record HS 21, ff. 523–524, Vincendiere to Caroline (1844); digital images, Maryland State Archives, MDLandRec.NET (http://www.mdlandrec.net : accessed Jun 2011).
[6] Frederick County Register of Wills, Original Wills, Victoire Vincendiere (1854); MSA C900-24, MdHR 11,532-964; Maryland State Archives, Annapolis.
[7] Frederick County, Maryland, Land Record ES 10, f. 411, Lowe to Ridgely (1857); digital images, Maryland State Archives, MDLandRec.NET (http://www.mdlandrec.net : accessed Jun 2011).
If you would like to cite this post: Michael Hait, “Correlating information from multiple records,” Planting the Seeds: Genealogy as a Profession blog, posted 30 Nov 2011 (https://michaelhait.wordpress.com : accessed [access date]). [Please also feel free to include a hyperlink to the specific article if you are citing this post in an online forum.]
Planting the Seeds 
Mr. Hait,
I think perhaps you left out something that I am sure you took into account, but just did not explicitly mention. And that is whether other families of the same surname (or each differing variant) were consulted so as to exclude other possibilities during the analysis process.
Often I find myself having to sort out differing families of the same surname so as to correctly place the person being researched. Obviously the more common the surname in that area, the more effort this requires.
While I know you would have mentioned if there were other candidate families in each census year, I find rebutting that possibility explicitly forestalls objections from less experienced researchers, despite the fact that you have made a conclusive argument otherwise.