Here’s how to approach an unrecognized or illegible notation, as well as missing information, in a record. I have come across the abbreviation “WS” in the column for “Place of birth” in the 1910 ...

Census records reveal clues to an African-American lineage stretching back in time to the years before slavery ended. My mother, Maggie Nell Lyons, is an only child. Her mother, Magnolia Battle, died ...