I have been exploring Dad’s DNA connections to people seemingly related through the Baxter family, many of whom disappeared from the records in Scotland. This has involved a little, if expensive, look at ScotlandsPeople but much more exploration via Ancestry.

Unfortunately it has proven very difficult to locate birth records for many putative descendants. The common theme seems to be that they show up on the 1870 and or 1880 census and that often I can see a death certificate showing the correct relationship but the actual births in Philadelphia are not showing up.

I have learned something new- there is no point trying to figure out where people were in Pennsylvania in 1890 as it seems that almost all America’s federal census material was lost in a fire in 1921! What a terrible loss!