Saving money on 1911 census.

[Paul Caswell]

Hi All,

It is quite unpleasant to pay for and excitedly open a full image only to find it is the wrong one. If anyone has any tips about using the search engine to avoid mistakes could we hear them?

I have collected from the TNA (with their permission) a complete list of districts and places along with their census references. You can download it from here.

http://www.ancestryhost.org/caswells//1911/RG14.pdf

Note that there are no counties but you should be able to make sense of it by looking at surrounding places on the list.

It is particularly useful if you have a good idea where they lived. Find that place in the list and fill in the RD SD and an ED into the census reference field. If your find is still there you have a good idea where they are living without paying for it.

Paul

[pipkim]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the link, it will be really useful.

When using the beta version of the 1911 census, I couldn't find which areas they had available on-line. So didn't find some of the people I was looking for and wasted a few credits. Luckily they we free credits with the purchase of Family Historian. Now I'll have to buy some more to find those elusive ones.

Pipkim 

[Galium]

The 'other members of the household' search facility is useful.   If you put eg. 'Joe Bloggs' in here and just 'Bloggs' in the 'personal details' section you can see if the other Bloggs are likely family members for your Joe.

[Not infallable, but I found it helped to narrow some of my searches down]

[Gadget]

Also a way of saving 10%


http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,352985.msg2310256.html#msg2310256


Gadget 

[Paul Caswell]

Here's a useful one.

Search for middle names!

Middle names are far more often unusual than first names and if your ancestor wrote their full name (and many seem to have) then you get a much better chance of finding the person if they have a common name.

Paul

[amram]

I found using the date of marriage helped me narrow down a couple with a common name, combined with another name in same household, came back with only one result, and it was the correct one.

[Paul Caswell]

If you've only got one result but you're still not sure or want to know more about where it is, try this:

I was looking for Harry Turner b1886 in Dorset.

There is only one, but is he the right one?

He appears in West Derby so a quick peek in my pdf suggests RD455 SD9 or 10

Add RD455 to the census reference and he's still there.

Add SD9 to the census reference and he's GONE.

Add SD10 to the census reference and he's GONE. Oh dear. Have they got it wrong?

Try SD8. Still GONE.
Try SD11. There he is!!!.

Now what is his ED number? Starting from ED1 I get as far as ED8 and he comes back!! His census reference is therefore RD455 SD11 ED8

A quick search in the pdf again and now I know he is living in Wavertree!

Now here's the fun bit! Back to 1911, remove everything from the search except the census reference and the name Turner and it looks like the household consists of:

TURNER,JANE,F,1832,79,West Derby,Lancashire
TURNER,MARGARET,F,1846,65,West Derby,Lancashire
TURNER,GEORGE,M,1883,28,West Derby,Lancashire
TURNER,EMILY JANE,F,1887,24,West Derby,Lancashire
TURNER,HARRY,M,1889,22,West Derby,Lancashire
TURNER,CHARLIE,M,1910,5 MONTHS,West Derby,Lancashire


This may be more than one household, it may even be six different households, its all the Turners in an area about 1/27th the size of Wavertree. I don't think this is my Harry but it demonstrates a quite nice way of squeezing out that little bit more for free.

Now plug Dorset back in and everyone else disappears, leaving just Harry. He's the only one born in Dorset. If you like, try tinkering with other fields to wheedle out other details.

Paul

Note: Items in red have changed.

[Paul Caswell]

For those of you with a technical bent, here's an Excel spreadsheet version of the pdf.

http://www.ancestryhost.org/caswells//1911/RG14-Public.zip

Paul

[Cas (stallc)]

catching up on info - interesting stuff - thanks

Cas