1911 census Beta on Find My Past

[Sloe Gin]

But if you specify the correct places of birth in your search, the results will be limited only to those matching the data you've put in.

But it depends what the people have stated themselves on the form, doesn't it.  As we know from previous census entries, this can vary quite a bit.  For instance, they might put down a district of a town, rather than the name of the town itself, or a different village from the one that was entered before.  We have surely all come across this sort of thing.

At least if it's displayed in the search results, you can rule out those that are out of the question.

[jillruss]

I just got the email today.

I found my great grandmother in Stone, Staffs on the free search but I don't have any credits with Find My Past at the moment, and don't feel inclined to spend £3.50 to view the page.

Have I worked that out right? 30 credits = about £3.50. I can't remember paying that much to view census pages on Ancestry, but perhaps I did and I've conveniently forgotten.

As the beta pages are only supposedly going to be available for a few days in December, and as I (and probably countless other people) have spent enough money just before Christmas to make the now non existent bank manager break out into a sweat on my behalf, I'll wait until the final version comes out next year.

I sincerely hope that their site and layout etc have had more planning put into them than this ridiculous idea of testing it just before Christmas when nearly everyone is borassic!! 

Jill

[kerryb]

Just found my great great grandmother, a widow with my great grandfather's twin brother.

That answers a question, we know that my great grandfather moved from Hackney down to Eastbourne at some point and it now appears it was probably before 1911 as he is not to found on the 1911 at the moment. 

His twin brother, a shipping clerk had signed the form, that's interesting to see his writing and also mum gave birth to 9 children 3 of which were dead by 1911, right need to go off and find out which ones.

Kerry

[O1dgobbo]

Hi

Come back Ancestry all is forgiven even your transcriptions.

Access to 1911 at last - Hooray I thought and set to work on the brick walls - nothing.  I guess I had missed the bit of the email saying that only certain areas were available.  Since it's Findmypast I might have anticipated that!

OK let's look at a London brick wall - Robert Slade b. Dunkeswell 1860 and subsequently unable to remember how old he is but probably in the London area and was a milkman (in Holloway Prison, 1901 claiming to be single having forgotten wife and child).  He usually remembers that he was born in Dunkeswell but the spelling can be difficult for enumerators.  Search cannot find Robert Slade born in Dunkeswell but can find 30 Roberts with birth place unspecified.  Look at list of 30 gives name and age, type of enumeration sheet (household or institution) and spot a possible in a Marylebone institution.  Pay 10 credits for transcription and get list showing names of inmates and ages including Robert Slade but no birthplace information.  Spend 30 of my remaining 33 credits on the image to discover that this Robert Slade says he was born in London.  I am given no information about the name of the institution either on the transcript or the image.  In addition the final column of the image - the one about deafness and lunacy etc - has been neatly obscured by a white card.

I return to my email and find the link to the questionnaire - there are few opportunities to tell them of my irritation until I come to the little text boxes at the end.  I type in a brief account of my disappointments and find that bits of my text keep disappearing and when I attempt to correct this matters just get worse!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRGH.

Even Ancestry's new search does not do this for my blood pressure.

Good luck

Gobbo

PS I shall probably be better tomorrow provided I have a quiet night and a good rest.

[davidft]

"In addition the final column of the image - the one about deafness and lunacy etc - has been neatly obscured by a white card."

Yes 01dgobbo, that is the part of the census that will not be available until 2012. They do make it clear on their website.

[Tewin]

Hi all 

I don't know where those places are without looking it up so don't know if they're within in the realeased counties.

It's free to search the indexes and you can search by place in the keywords field. If you don't get any results you know they're not there  yet!

[O1dgobbo]

Hi David

"Read the instructions first" is very good advice that I have often neglected.  They call the cover up redaction, which is a word that I really need to look up.  It's just I started out so happy and excited and now ....

I cannot see in both my emails where it lists the missing counties.  I did find a button on a search screen that brought up a list but I cannot find that now.

Demoralized and confused

Gobbo

[stonechat]

but no use without the place of birth shown in the search results

You can put place of birth in the search term

[Sloe Gin]

You can put place of birth in the search term

I know, but as I explained above, it doesn't always help.

But it depends what the people have stated themselves on the form, doesn't it. As we know from previous census entries, this can vary quite a bit. For instance, they might put down a district of a town, rather than the name of the town itself, or a different village from the one that was entered before. We have surely all come across this sort of thing.

At least if it's displayed in the search results, you can rule out those that are out of the question.

Plus there are always going to be spelling variations, and the like.