There's a good many factors that can eff up
your ancestry searches
Some of my ancestors were various injuns
but back in days past, you didn't advertise
being Indian or part Indian.
Not if you had kids you wanted to send to
school, or if you wanted to attend church,
or hold a job outside of the farm, or trade
at any stores, etc.
There is also the problem of the mortality of
people back then. My mother's side had several
relatives that had died from epidemics and
various farm accidents and such, and had
children that were orphaned.
My mother and her sister were raised with
cousins that were taken in when the family
had died during an epidemic that went through
the area. The way I understand it, several families
each took one of the children to raise as their own.
The government didn't interfere in such matters
back then, and it's debatable as to whether
that was the right thing or not.
I'm sure the census takers back then
had problems back then keeping that kind of
stuff straight. Then there's the issue of people
just abandoning their kids much like happens
today. A late friend of mine was more or
less abandoned by his parents who didn't
feel like they had time to be messing with
any children that might interfere with their
allocated debauchery time. IIRC some kindly
neighbors or friends or someone raised him
as their own child.
Lots of twists and turns trying to trace any
family lineage
