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General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: lyn22 on Monday 27 August 12 02:24 BST (UK)
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Does anyone have any good tips for finding people on Census I have whole families that disappear I can only think that they are mistranscribed. I have some I have found the name is Burke but are transcribed as Brake , Birk and Burch. Take Care Lynette
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Illiteracy was rife in the 1800's, so many people couldn't fill in the census returns for themselves, and they relied on others to do it for them. Often those filling in the forms were not closely linked with the family, so they will have written down what they heard. It's probably not mis-transcription, but more a case of mis-communication. Try thinking about ways that the name could have been heard..... Bird, Burr, Burt, Bert..... any more suggestions, Roots Chatters ? :)
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Hello Lynette
Put in Christian name,age,where born etc & leave out surname.
Sometimes helps
omega :)
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Thanks Nick and Omega take Care Lynette
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I often use first names without surnames. Also a good one to use the most unusual name in the family.
I have also searched whole villages or areas of larger town.
My Baker-Potters were very hard to find until I realized they never moved very far. I just had to troll through about 20 pages of census summaries and there they were living the happy and quiet life they always had.
Good luck!
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Yes Tedscout I have Baileys and Elmore's / Elmer's that all stayed in West Winch and everyone had atleast one John sometimes two if the first one died. Take Care Lynette
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what about Berk or Berc or Beck?
Carrie
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I find that the things most likely to be mistranscribed, either by the enumerator or when it was put in the database, are the surname and the age. Ages of children, though, are likely to be more accurate than those of adults.
First names tend to be well transcribed, though middle names are often missing altogether.
Even when a person was trying to hide, they rarely lied about their place of birth, so that's a good thing to search on even though unusual places of birth may have caused problems. Don't forget that wildcards can help here. Families who moved around, though, often forgot which children were born where.
Both Ancestry and FindMyPast allow you to look for other people in the household, so mentioning someone you expect to be living in the same house increases your chances.
The surname variants in my one-name study are very prone to mistranscription, even when the person concerned was literate, so I use every option I can to locate someone missing from a census.
Assuming someone is on their own, and having failed with the full name and age +/- 5 years, I start by removing the date of birth. Then mess with the place of birth - use just the county if the township gives nothing.
Use wildcards to help. Ancestry has more options than FindMyPast here. I can use formats like D??BA*, where FindMyPast just allows an asterisk at the right hand end.
When someone has been consistent with a place of birth in other censuses, try just the first name and the township. You may end up scanning through 20 pages of results, but usually you can spot a likely mistranscription.
There will always be cases which we are unable to find for some reason. If someone was just a lodger, they may not even have been asked the proper spelling of their name, or where they came from.
On more than one occasion I have seen the place of birth dittoed all the way down the sheet, and the the enumerator has realised that one person part way down was actually born in foreign parts, so changed just that one line. When the transcription was done, we end up (correctly) with results he never expected. Great great uncle Henry's whole family is down as being born in China rather than Wigan. :)
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If they haven't moved very far on previous census records, try looking for neighbours. Sometimes even the local inn-keeper can lead you to the people you want.
Rishile
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Try putting all the info you have about them on here .... someone bored on a rainy afternoon will find them !
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Try forename in surname and surname in forename.
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Thanks for everyone's tips I have written them down and I will start searching again. I do love finding them myself but I will post for help if I need it Take Care Lynette 8)
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I found one of mine last night her first name was Leah and she was miss transcribed on the 1911 census as Leak poor child. As if some mother would call her daughter that! ;D ;D
Regards panda
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Hello Panda yes I found one of mine before and instead of Louise Dyke she was Low Dyke poor girl, Take Care Lynette
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Which census?
1841, of course, doesn't mention place of birth.
1871 (usually) is indexed only on county, rather than town.
Places of birth can vary - a hamlet that is known to local people, will often be changed to the nearest town if the people moved away from home.
For example, when I am not in the UK, I tell people I am from Bristol, even though I am really from Portishead, Somerset! ;D ;D
I often search on forename and place of birth and year of birth, when I can't find someone.
Only last night I did that searching for a family Raven, and found them as Rover!
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I have had trouble finding them on the 1861 Census my GGG Grandparents may have died On the 1841 census I have Thomas Dyke 40 my GGG Grandfather Occupation Cordwainer Maria my GGG Grandmother 40 Thomas 20 Charles 15 William 13 Joseph 12 Samuel 7 John 5 Mary 15 Maria 10 Sophia 8 and Elizabeth 6 months all born at Warwickshire Address Spon End. Then in 1851 Thomas seems to be on his own still married and Maria still married is with Joseph Maria Samuel JohnT and Elizabeth Address Spon End. In 1861 I have most of the children with there spouses. I would like to find my GGG Grandparents in 1861 or a death for them. Take Care Lynette
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This could be Maria:
Death (from freeBMD): Maria Dyke 4th q. 1853, Coventry 6d 243.
Burial: London Road Cemetery, Coventry, 25 December 1853, Maria Dyke aged 56.
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My great-gransmother was called winifred.On one Census she ,a widow and all her children as down as having the surname Winifed!
Carrie
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Thanks so much Jen B I will have a look at that death for her . Carrie there are some funny things on the Census I love reading them. Take Care Lynette 8)
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When searching based on birth years, I always look for the youngest person in the family first - there's more chance of their birth year being recorded correctly than anyone else.
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Thanks Mike that's a good tip Take Care Lynette 8)
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I had lost two distinct but related sets of ancestors on the 1861 census. I tried everything to find them, but nope, nothing doing. It was only a couple of years later when I broadened out my searches and bought the marriage certificate of my great great grandmother's brother that I realised he got married on 7 April 1861, which was census day, and both sets of rellies must have spent census night at a knees up in some hostelry and obviously didn't fill in the forms! It was a great relief finally to work it out.
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That would have been a relief some relatives drive me crazy searching for them Take Care Lynette
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I had lost two distinct but related sets of ancestors on the 1861 census. I tried everything to find them, but nope, nothing doing. It was only a couple of years later when I broadened out my searches and bought the marriage certificate of my great great grandmother's brother that I realised he got married on 7 April 1861, which was census day, and both sets of rellies must have spent census night at a knees up in some hostelry and obviously didn't fill in the forms! It was a great relief finally to work it out.
Good to know weddings were celebrated with as much gusto then as now :D :D
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I'm using the 1861 Census search on familysearch.org for the name of Sullivan in Glamorganshire. Have found one name (Daniel) at https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/M7BC-9L8 and believe his wife (Betzy) to be at https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/M7BC-9LD.
Daniel is shown as the Brother to the 'Head' and Betzy is shown as the Sister-in-Law to the 'Head', and I'm wondering if I can use the URL addresses to safely find other members of the same household, as I've noticed that the only difference between these URL's for Daniel & Betzy is "...9L8" & "...9LD" respectively, so I'm wondering if I can safely use all the other URL's that end "...9L*" as being from the same household???
See new topic with replies:
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,622303.0/topicseen.html
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Much better to start a new thread, and ask RootsChatters to look it up for you?! ;D
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I spent more than 30 years looking for Donaldson in Scotland in 1841 when he was 15 ish. I gave up in the end, then had a go at FindMyPast and found it earlier this year.
When I try Scotlands People on line however it fails to show up, but I also had the name of the family where he was working and he is recorded as born in Scotland - even though he is still living in the town of his birth, so was able to print off a copy.
Obviously the head of house ( who was Chamberlain Steward to Duke of Buccleugh) could not be bothered to find out details of their staff as all servants were born in Scotland.
I have also found my own great grandparents recorded as Keary - it was Vicary.
I also recommend using other family members as others have suggested. I couldn't find my grandparents in 1911, but tried my uncle's name, he was 2 at the time, and got it straight away.
Moral being: keep looking and try wild cards etc whenever possible
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I have had some success by thinking of what a name sounds like in the local accent when looking for names on census records. Fergerson, Furgeson and even a Pergerson has cropped up!
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My advice is never give up!
It took years to find my ggrggrandmother on one particular census.
In fact, she had re-married when quite old and though her some of her children were resident with her, their surname had been mis-spelled, so didn' tcome up in on-line searches.
Given that the family never moved out of one small neighbourhood, I'd have had quicker results by just going over all the pages of census returns for the area, I think.
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I have found that despite putting 'variants' when searching a surname it does not always work. The only way I found a return for my g.grandfather whose surname is Foord, is when I typed in a separate search spelling with only one 'o' thus Ford. He had been missing for some time from the family home. Should not have to do a separate search really but a tip worth remembering if stuck.
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I found one of mine last night her first name was Leah and she was miss transcribed on the 1911 census as Leak poor child. As if some mother would call her daughter that! ;D ;D
Regards panda
You never know! Take a look at the name I have just posted on the 'What might you name your children' thread.