Sometimes it's not easy to determine if the name you are searching is your ancestor. You have to look at all the surrounding facts to make decision. I started to see a pattern about a year ago.
All the family trees I have found for my Curtiss line say that Alfred Hatch Curtiss is my G-G-Grandfather. I followed A. H. Curtiss starting in the 1850 Census. He had a son named Leroy. I had a suspicion that Leroy was a Junior, so I followed his as though he was Alfred Leroy. His siblings names and birth dates continued through the 1870.
Another clue was the other Curtisses on the same Census page. I also noticed the A. H. Curtiss seemed to have another Curtiss always on the Census with him. H. H. Curtiss married to a Verilla /Vanilla / etc. (you can't trust the census for spelling)
Another clue came with the 1880 Census. I knew from living relatives that our Curtiss family migrated from St. Joseph, Missouri to California. In searching the Buchanan Co. Census I found an A.L. Curtiss married to M.E. living with C. Darby. I know this was my A.L. Curtiss because his wife's maiden name was Darby. In following this Curtiss family 1900, 1910 and 1920 Census records I confirmed my relatives by the names I knew as my Grandparents and Aunts.
The final clue came when I found a notation in my very own Baby Book. My Grandmother had supplied the names of my Great Grandparents to my mother for the Curtiss side. There it was - "Leroy". My GGrandfather was called Leroy just as I had suspected. Because of this entry I now knew that my GGGrandfather was Alfred H. Curtiss.
This chart shows the continuous flow of Census records with some notations.
