Some Holes in My Story

Even ancestors close to me are hard to locate at different periods of their lives.  I have yet to find my mother (Rachel Helen Crawford) in the US Census of 1930.  She would have been 17 years old and should have been at home in Valley County, Idaho, with her parents, Elisha Jordan "Jurd" and Christina Tuttle Crawford, but she is not.  They are the only ones at home

1930 Census, Cascade ID - Crawford, Jerdon/Christina 4th & 5th from bottom - no Rachel

I have looked at all her older brothers and sisters (my mother is the youngest of 13 children and you can see that at 17 her parents were 63 and 59 years old) and she is not staying with any of them - all of them being married and most with children and possibly needing help with them.  One brother, Walter (born in 1904) had just lost his wife in 1927 and he had 3 small children to raise on his own - you'd think he'd have a 17 year old sister move in and help with this.  But she was not living with him.  Searches through Ancestry.com have not come up with any Rachel Crawford, 17 years, in Valley County, Idaho.  And my mother did not marry my father until 1933.

The old homestead in Valley Co circa 1915. Jurd and Christina on left, possibly Mom in stroller.

My mother has been gone since 1993, so I cannot ask her.  Even if I had been searching census records before then, the 1930 Census was not available back then, so I had no clue I would need to ask her where she could have been living in 1930.  Anyone else that would have known that information is deceased also.  So the search goes on.

Next is my father's dad, Thomas Elbridge Logue - I can't find him in the 1880 Census in Pennsylvania.  Thomas was born in 1870 and would have been 10 years old for the 1880 US Census.  Would you not expect him to be with his parents?  Not there....  Even his two younger brothers,  John (b. 1771) and Frederick (b. 1776), were not listed at home.  Only listed is father, George Alexander and mother, Sarah (listed with disease of the heart - she died early in 1882), and George's father, Adam.  Again, I've searched all known relatives in the area and no sign of the boys - no luck with searches on Ancestry.com here either.

1880 US Census, Potter Co PA - George (Alexander), Sarah, and Adam one up from bottom.

I've checked Sarah Sweet Logue's parent's - only her father was living and was with her sister, Prudence Sweet Bartlett and her family, husband Carlos and son Charles, aged 6 - no Thomas, John or Fred.  Brother Frederick Sweet and his wife Mary, in Williamsport (Lycoming Co) PA have only their children, Harry and Alice living with them.  I can't find her sister Mary, who would have been about 41 years old in 1880 -  I've no clue who she married.  It's possible the boys were living with her, but until I can determine who she married and where she was living in 1880, I'm stuck.

Tom Logue in middle with my father on left and Uncle Fred on right - about 1943.

So as I do research on ancestors in the 1600's, I'm still stuck on finding data/sources from as close as 1880 or 1930.  Problems like this keep me up late at night doing research.  And you dedicated researchers out there can understand this.