Don't underestimate the value of doing a first-name-only search on Ancestry.com for a family member, even if it is a common name like Elizabeth.

I was unable to find my great-great-grandmother, Elizabeth Stiltz, in the 1880 New Jersey census for Burlington County, even after doing a Soundex search. That is, until I put in her first name, the name of the county, and the town in which she likely lived in the 1880 census. Up came a long list of people named Elizabeth in the town with their surnames in alphabetical order. I clicked on the page of hits with surnames beginning with "S" and came up with the right Elizabeth Stiltz. She was incorrectly indexed as Shltz. 

If I don't know the town where a person likely lived, I use the birth year for the person, allowing for a couple of years leeway on either side of the year as permitted in the search process--along with the person's first name, the name of the state, and the name of the county. Using this method of listing the birth year without a town produces an alphabetical listing of the towns in the county containing individuals with that particular first name which may, admittedly, involve a more intensive time search, but one which has been well worth it in my experience. 

This method has helped me break through quite a number of brick walls involving my census research.

Thanks to Carl Roache for today's Quick Tip! If you have a tip you would like to share with researchers, you can send it to ADNeditor@ancestry.com.

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