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Census Lookups General Lookups => Census Lookup and Resource Requests => Census and Resource Discussion => Completed Census Requests => Topic started by: KerryEL on Friday 19 December 08 22:25 GMT (UK)
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Found my illusive realtives on the 1911 census... shocked at the fact that I always thought that my gt grandfather had 1 brother but the census transcript shows loads of brothers and sisters.... how can this be?? :)
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The 1911 census?
Perhaps he fell out with the rest of his siblings
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Did some die before adulthood?
I was surprised to find a baby sister of my grandad,I thought he only had the one older sister,and the rest were boys. Discovered that she died a year later aged just 1.
Carol
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1911 census ?
did i miss something ?
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early release of London and some Home Counties, Staffs and Wilts and a couple of others - offered as a beta-test by invitation only - till Dec 22nd
Theres a long thread about it currently running :)
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None of my London and Middlesex people seem to be there! I think they have all move into a bit which will come under Essex - typical eh! ;D
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early release of London and some Home Counties, Staffs and Wilts and a couple of others - offered as a beta-test by invitation only - till Dec 22nd
Theres a long thread about it currently running :)
I've beta tested several bits of software. I registered for the 1911 preview. I got the beta test invitation. NEVER EVER before have I been asked to pay to perform someone's beta testing for them. What's that phrase? Must've thought I came off the top of a Christmas tree! (And no, Gadget, it's not because I'm tight-fisted - it just isn't done.)
Mike
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discussing with my son - his reaction was the same as yours Mike. Perhaps testers reaction to having to pay is one of the things they're testing :-\ :-\
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I looked up my father today after someone suggested the Beta version of 1911 Census. I have his birth certificate with mother and father of same last name (presumably married) but he is shown as living with a widow (no relation) her occupation is "nurse" and he is listed as "nurse child CC".
I was told that he was an orphan but am puzzled by the "nurse child CC" term.
Any suggestions please
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I looked up my father today after someone suggested the Beta version of 1911 Census. I have his birth certificate with mother and father of same last name (presumably married) but he is shown as living with a widow (no relation) her occupation is "nurse" and he is listed as "nurse child CC".
I was told that he was an orphan but am puzzled by the "nurse child CC" term.
Any suggestions please
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"nurse child" = "foster child", more or less. I'm not sure what 'CC' means - it might be a reference to the organisation who placed him.
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C C = County Council ?
My great grandad was a bus driver for the LCC....London County Council.
Maybe what they are saying is that it was an official placement,rather than just an agreement between friends or family.
Carol
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early release of London and some Home Counties, Staffs and Wilts and a couple of others - offered as a beta-test by invitation only - till Dec 22nd
Theres a long thread about it currently running :)
I've beta tested several bits of software. I registered for the 1911 preview. I got the beta test invitation. NEVER EVER before have I been asked to pay to perform someone's beta testing for them. What's that phrase? Must've thought I came off the top of a Christmas tree! (And no, Gadget, it's not because I'm tight-fisted - it just isn't done.)
Mike
Mike
I agree with you on this one - see my messages on the main thread last night.
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,348330.msg2273964.html#msg2273964
It goes against most of the principles of testing :(
Gadget :)
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early release of London and some Home Counties, Staffs and Wilts and a couple of others - offered as a beta-test by invitation only - till Dec 22nd
Theres a long thread about it currently running :)
I've beta tested several bits of software. I registered for the 1911 preview. I got the beta test invitation. NEVER EVER before have I been asked to pay to perform someone's beta testing for them. What's that phrase? Must've thought I came off the top of a Christmas tree! (And no, Gadget, it's not because I'm tight-fisted - it just isn't done.)
Mike
Mike
I agree with you on this one - see my messages on the main thread last night.
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,348330.msg2273964.html#msg2273964
It goes against most of the principles of testing :(
Gadget :)
FindMyPast are not asking you to pay to beta test their software. Register on the site (by invitation only at the mo), and you can test the 1911 census search facility to your heart's content for FREE. You only have to pay to see the information that the software retrieves, either in the form of a transcription, or in a digital photograph of a page.
Am I to assume that if you built a robot which made brand new Ferrari cars, and you asked me to beta test the robot, that you would allow me to keep the cars that the robot made while I was beta testing ? :D :)
Incidentally, (for Newf), the beta test has been extended beyond Christmas.
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Oh dear - see other thread;
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,348330.0.html
A Ferrari for Christmas :D
Happy Christmas, Nick :)
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thats totally laughable ...... unless of course we are talking toy cars ?
you not tracking the 1911 blog ? a lot has happened since the 20th 8)
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You talking to me or Nick, Newf :)
Have a Ferrari ;D ;D ;D
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I don't know what beta testing you've done in the past apart from Ferrari cars ::) Nick but that which I've done there has always been an incentive or a reward. FindMyPast are just taking the proverbial, after all they are a commercial co I suppose. >:(
Kerry
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I think the analogy is slightly out - it's more like asking us to pay the full wack each time we test drive :)
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Spot on Gadget ;)
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Well, nobody is forcing you to do the beta testing, which is why only those who expressed an interest in viewing the 1911 census were invited to do so. I'm more than happy to test out their software in exchange for letting me view and download the census material (that I've been waiting for 2 years to see) in 2008, instead of 2009. So far I have spent about £12.50 on the beta site, and downloaded 3 census forms, and I consider it money well spent, because although it hasn't smashed any brick walls, it has filled in a few blanks, inlcuding my father's elusive side of the family. I look upon it as a surprise Christmas present, because it has made me very happy :)
Incidentally, the general public were the "final stage" beta testers - according to the blog, the software was tried out on many smaller closed groups first. As for being paid to beta test products - most of us have been doing it for free for years for Microsoft ! ;D
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That's still different from the pleasure of being charged to beta test which in effect is what is happening here. ;)
Anyway I'm very pleased with the information I gained, it hasn't smashed through any brickwalls but it has opened up some more searching - unknown babies. I had an interesting conversation with my dad at the dinner table yesterday about his great grandmother who was living in the town he and I were both born and he didn't know that. Everyone else at table did this - ::)
Kerry
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Nick - have you read the other thread? This would show you that we have all spent money on finding ancestors.
I have spent £31 and I also had 218 credits left over from pre-sub days. I don't mind spending the money to find my Mother and Father for the first time on the census and my other ancestors and my in-laws.
However, a test is a test and we are providing valuable feedback. This should be acknowledged in some form or other by credits or lower rates.
Gadget
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Well I told them what I thought in the feedback survey and I hope others will too!
With the pre sub ppvs I have used and the one I bought the other day I have spent over £50 and yes I have downloaded some 8 census returns but it is still way too expensive!
Kerry
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Nick - have you read the other thread? This would show you that we have all spent money on finding ancestors.
I have spent £31 and I also had 218 credits left over from pre-sub days. I don't mind spending the money to find my Mother and Father for the first time on the census and my other ancestors and my in-laws.
However, a test is a test and we are providing valuable feedback. This should be acknowledged in some form or other by credits or lower rates.
Gadget
Gadget, yes I have read the other thread. As far as I'm concerned, being able to read and use the 1911 census information weeks (at least) ahead of the masses is reward enough. Maybe my expectations are too low ? ???
Well I told them what I thought in the feedback survey and I hope others will too!
With the pre sub ppvs I have used and the one I bought the other day I have spent over £50 and yes I have downloaded some 8 census returns but it is still way too expensive!
Kerry
Well Kerry, put it this way, if you had a company and had employed lots of staff and bought equipment so that you could photograph, digitize, and store 42 million photographic images, spent thousands of man-hours transcribing and entering the data from each one, then employed a team of programmers to design a program so that tens of thousands of people could simultaneously access the data (whilst blanking off the part that the government doesn't want us to see until 2102), how much would you charge per sheet, and make a profit on your labours ?
If I buy credits at £24.95 a batch, getting a copy of an actual form filled in by my ancestors costs me about £2.80 a sheet, which is about a third of the price of a BMD certificate from the GRO. To me that's good value, but we're all entitled to our own opinions. :)
Incidentally Kerry, how did you spend £50 on eight census returns ? Even on the £6.95 credits package it only costs £3.60 per page ? Where did the other £21.20 go ? :-\
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Trying to find my great grandfather who doesn't want to be found. Unfortunately there were several options on the results page. ::) ::) But with not quite enough details present none of them were him. I will find him one day ;D
Kerry
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I'm not happy with the pricing and have put that in my feedback but as a friend pointed out - its still cheaper than paying £45 for a copy of an address direct from the National Archives - which she did earlier this year!
I hope the search function remains as is for the launch of the site since in many ways the advance functions are much better than the search function provided on the original 1901 site. My only real gripe with it is the fact that you can't use "*" in names and there is no soundex option. I've see very few transcription errors in the index names but not that many so far - either that or I've just not been able to find some people and assumed they were in Essex rather than London. Its nice to be able to confirm who's in the household with the same surname without necessarily purchasing a copy of the transcript or original image. I'm being a skinflint anyway and refusing to buy original images until the price drops or I can get them using my Findmypast subscription, which I suspect is a long way off happening (probably talking years rather than months). However the transcripts I have purchase have been sufficient to give me the info I require so I'm happy with them.
Just wish metropolitan Essex would appear since so many of mine had moved out the East End into Stratford/West Ham/Plaistow etc by then!!
Nicola
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The more detailed search options are currently disabled to avoid overloading the servers too much, and I'm sure they will be improved when the full service starts. I think that some people are losing sight of the fact that a year ago most of us had resigned ourselves to not being able to see the 1911 census until 2011, which was the case in all previous censuses (the 1901 census was not viewable online until 2001, and I think many of us remember that fiasco !) ::)
No-one wants to pay high prices for viewing and downloading documents, but faced with the option of paying £2.50 to view a 1911 census page NOW, or view it more cheaply on subscription in April 2011, then I choose the former option. Other people have that choice too. If you think it's too expensive, then wait out the "100 year rule", and see it more cheaply in two years' time.
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But then if we all decide its too expensive and sit it out who's going to test the site ::) No doubt they know we can't possibly do that hence the extortionate price. ::)
Kerry
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Think we should all agree that it is wonderful being able to find our relatives but then there are those of us who pay but think it's extortionate and would like some kind of reward for testing (the vast majority) and there are some, like Nick, who are quite happy with providing free feedback and the charging policy of the Beta test site
Maybe that's where it should end. Otherwise it's going around in circles :-\
A good New Year to you all :)
Gadget
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The early adopters of all new technologies are always the ones that foot the R & D bills....... VHS, CD's, DVD's, Blu-Ray.......
I bought one of the first CD players in the early 1980's, and I paid nearly £400 for it. Now they're £39.99 ::)
Anyway, echoing Gadget's sentiments - a Happy New Year to you all ! :)
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Not really wanting to send this into another spiral, but a thought on Nick's analogy with the good old VCR (and my parents originally had Betamax not VHS) - early takeup also depends on your motives for doing it.
There will no doubt be many who are stuck on a line where the 1911 census may help them go back a generation. For them its cheaper than a certificate which they may not be able to find easily anyway.
For me, after 10 years active research, I'm trying to confirm sidelines coming forward and there are a considerable number of them to find by 1911. Therefore no I am not going to purchase original images because it would be way too expensive but with a combination of the advanced search function on the site and £50s worth of transcripts (which I've purchased over the last week) I've managed to make headways into quite a few lines coming forward. These are lines I would not purchase certificates for but am now able to perhaps bring even further forward now through the BMD indexes post 1911. I'm happy, would prefer the original images but am prepared two wait until 2012 if I have to because I don't need the info, just would like it. Its very much a question of why everyone as an individual is searching on the site ... and yes it is addictive!!
That's me off my soapbox, have a Happy New Year.
Nicola
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Good points, Nicola. What I think FindMyPast should do is to give a discount on the image if you have already bought the transcript. After all, should you find a transcription error, you will do doubt report it, so they are gaining in the long run.
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I just agree to disagree and wish you all a very Happy New Year :)
I agree with Nicola about people's different reasons for searching ;)
Kerry
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when does the restricted 1911 census appear for the rest of us? I know its 2009 but when?
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I don't think any release date has been announced..........or have I missed it?
Nanny Jan
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From an email yesterday:
"We wish you a happy 2009 and look forward to welcoming you back when the site launches later in the year. The 1911census.co.uk team"
Susan :)