Roots Disentangled

One expects the census entries for a household to follow a particular pattern: Head of Household Spouse Children in descending age Others When the entries don't follow this order, it can raise questions. Below is a detail from the 1880 census for the family of Joseph and Emily PJ Wakefield, Greensburg, Green, Kentucky Wakefield, Joseph | Black | Male | 43 | Head of Household | Married | Farmer Wakefield, Emily PJ | Mulatto | Female | 26 | Wife | Married | Keeping Home Wakefield, Aldora | Mulatto | Female | 1 | Daughter | Single Wakefield, Christopher | Mulatto | Male | 18 | Servant | Married | Farm Laborer Wakefield, Mary J | Mulatto | Female | 12 | Step Daughter | Single | At Home Wakefield, John W | Mulatto | Male | 6 | Son | Single Wakefield, Martha | Mulatto | Female | ? | ? | Married | At Home Ancestry.com's "tree hints" suggest that Aldora is the only child of Joseph and Emily in this census. Once it reaches a servant, it assumes the ...

I have been researching my genealogy for over a decade. However, my spouse and I have adopted a child. Unfortunately, it is my belief that the family of one of the biological parents might be completely unaware of the existence of the child. This creates difficulties with blogging about near ancestors. And the more I blog about distant ancestors, a close relative could find the blog and discover a significant amount of surnames in common. I don't wish to give up the benefits of finding distant cousins through blogging. I've broken down some of my own brick walls in this manner. However, I would rather be anonymous if this happens, and they decide to contact me. If you are thinking about contacting me, be aware I will not tell you who I am, or where I live. If I know, I might tell you how closely related you are to my child. I might not. It will certainly depend a lot on how much time has elapsed since this initial post. As my child will need to be old enough to express thei...