how to find relatives on census

[mintola1964]

Bekahsgran found my ancestors on a census, but I'm wondering how you do it in case it's spelt wrong, one of the spellings she found them under was Hsley!! I have typed in Illsley, Ilsley, Issley, Isley but how would you come up with Hsley? Is there anything I can type in that will find all kinds of spellings remotely connected to the name? I can't seem to find this one person any earlier than about 1871!! It's really frustrating and I'm wondering if there is an easier way, thanks in advance

[Sam from Stoke]

If you know someone's christian name, you can search for that along with their year and/or place of birth, that will sometimes find strange surname variations and I have found many relatives this way.

Of course, if you have 'William' born in London it may still throw up a few thousand names!

Sam x

[handm]

If you have an idea of where they lived, you can click on the relevant county, then town and possibly parish. Look at the description of the Enumeration districts to narrow down the search still further, then look at all pages for the chosen area. Takes a bit of time, but can work when the census image is a bit difficult to read accurately.

Handm

[mintola1964]

thanks for this, have just tried the leaving out the surname bit taking ages to trawl through, not sure how to do what has just been suggested, is this on ancestry?

[handm]

Hello again,
Sorry if I did not make it clear. Yes it is on Ancestry.
When you select a particular census, scroll down below the box where you would normally  enter details, and you will come to the list of counties, and you can click on these and then go on from there.
Hope that helps.
handm