I have just added a page to the blog with an analysis of the Lewis bearers in the 1850 US census.
3 thoughts on “Lewis in 1850 Census”
While the information in the 1850 Federal Census is interesting and helpful in documenting our recent Lewis ancestors, it doesn’t help in locating our Lewis family origins.
There is a broadly held assumption that our Lewis families originated in Wales, but I have found multiple Lewis lines from the UK that do not have a Welsh origin, at least in recorded history.
I’ve researched all Lewes/Lewes immigrants to the Colonies since 1600 and find very few who connect through documentation with their UK (Wales/England) ancestors, including my own. Generally, when families migrated from the UK in the 17th and 18th Centuries, they lost all connections with their families back home, and those connections were not recorded in contemporary records. So we
are left with family stories, contemporary suppositions and generally no documentation of their origins.
It’s important to possess authentic documentation of claims for our family origins, from primary documents, not from Ancestry, FamilySearch, Wikitree, Find-a-Grave or other secondary sources.
Thank you for your comments. As you are newly introduced to our study, let me share some details of what we are doing as then this census analysis will be better understood.
When we got this project started, we had very little Lewis data and still do. This was designed to be one of the first Guild studies created at its outset as a collaborative study to learn how to create such a study for a large surname as you will admit Lewis is.
Paul and the rest of the team decided on a process for populating a TNG Genealogy website (https://lewis.one-name.net) efficiently by addressing the 1850/1851 census and creating at least partial trees for all of the Lewis bearers found in those census. We would have contributors sign up for a US County or a UK Registration District and build trees for the people found there. The goal would not be to take those people forward in time but to research as much as possible their ancestors. This would be the first phase of the project.
Of course, if a contributor like yourself could provide a US Gedcom that would go back to immigrant ancestors (or before) and forward to the present time, we would not object.
The Guild sites are designed to preserve the research indefinitely. As a registered UK Charity, one of our goals would be to become a repository for as much Lewis source material and genealogies that would be preserved and freely available to the public.
My Lewis/Louis ancestors originated in Ireland. Lewis is not a typically Irish name so it is possible they did come from England prior to that but I have not found the link, yet. My Ancestors from around 1800 were born, lived, and died in Lanarkshire Scotland. I will look through the information on your sites as this is the first I have been made aware of them (Scottish Index conference).
While the information in the 1850 Federal Census is interesting and helpful in documenting our recent Lewis ancestors, it doesn’t help in locating our Lewis family origins.
There is a broadly held assumption that our Lewis families originated in Wales, but I have found multiple Lewis lines from the UK that do not have a Welsh origin, at least in recorded history.
I’ve researched all Lewes/Lewes immigrants to the Colonies since 1600 and find very few who connect through documentation with their UK (Wales/England) ancestors, including my own. Generally, when families migrated from the UK in the 17th and 18th Centuries, they lost all connections with their families back home, and those connections were not recorded in contemporary records. So we
are left with family stories, contemporary suppositions and generally no documentation of their origins.
It’s important to possess authentic documentation of claims for our family origins, from primary documents, not from Ancestry, FamilySearch, Wikitree, Find-a-Grave or other secondary sources.
Michael,
Thank you for your comments. As you are newly introduced to our study, let me share some details of what we are doing as then this census analysis will be better understood.
When we got this project started, we had very little Lewis data and still do. This was designed to be one of the first Guild studies created at its outset as a collaborative study to learn how to create such a study for a large surname as you will admit Lewis is.
Paul and the rest of the team decided on a process for populating a TNG Genealogy website (https://lewis.one-name.net) efficiently by addressing the 1850/1851 census and creating at least partial trees for all of the Lewis bearers found in those census. We would have contributors sign up for a US County or a UK Registration District and build trees for the people found there. The goal would not be to take those people forward in time but to research as much as possible their ancestors. This would be the first phase of the project.
Of course, if a contributor like yourself could provide a US Gedcom that would go back to immigrant ancestors (or before) and forward to the present time, we would not object.
The Guild sites are designed to preserve the research indefinitely. As a registered UK Charity, one of our goals would be to become a repository for as much Lewis source material and genealogies that would be preserved and freely available to the public.
My Lewis/Louis ancestors originated in Ireland. Lewis is not a typically Irish name so it is possible they did come from England prior to that but I have not found the link, yet. My Ancestors from around 1800 were born, lived, and died in Lanarkshire Scotland. I will look through the information on your sites as this is the first I have been made aware of them (Scottish Index conference).