"Bing!!!" - An idea

[Dimps]

Fairly often, there are lookup requests for 1841 Census entries within large(ish) towns in Sussex.  Having attempted a few such requests I am now, I must admit , ignoring new requests.  Brighton, for example, is a nightmare.  I think that many requesters don't realise that the 1841 has no index.  Now that there are at least three of us with access to the 1841 Census (Chris in 1066 Land, Muvva and Dimps), perhaps we can devise a way to split responsibility for the larger towns.  By this I mean that if, for instance, someone requests a look-up in Brighton, each of us refers to just our allocated pages.

What do you think?

Deborah

[Chris in 1066Land]

Deborah

I quite agree about Brighton being a complete and utter nightmare - and the pages aint to bright either.

In theory it sounds like a reasonable idea - if you know what part of the town/city it might appear in - or are you saying we should all look in a certain section only like:

1121 - Brighton St Peters
1122 - Brighton Palace
1123 - Brighton Kemptown

Strangely, its in 3 sections - I bags Brighton Palace

Chris

[Dimps]

I'm not familiar with Brighton at all.  The last time I was there, my father talked me into sitting on the Prince Regent's loo in the Royal Pavillion for a photograph - I was heavily pregnant with my first child, now 11 3/4!

There must be some way we can split the 1841 Census (only for the large towns) equally between us.

Deborah

[muvva]

I think it's a great idea, or should that be Bing!!

I must admit it is very daunting when a request comes in for a search in a large town such as Brighton. Without a name index it can take hours of searching and as you know, some of the pages are so badly faded they are next to impossible to read. Even then, there is no guarantee that the person you are looking for is there at all. Although I lived in Sussex as a very young child, I have no recollection of ever having been to Brighton, all I can remember is the lane outside out house in East Grinstead!

So yes, I'd be happy to help out with the larger towns. Not quite sure how this will work though... could we maybe reply on the thread that we have seen the request and are are searching piece no. xxxx or a certain Parish? That should save anyone else trawling through the same pages. Would that work do you think?

Chris
ps... nice to see you back here Chris

[Chris in 1066Land]

Hi there

Thank for that welcome chris.

as mentioned earlier, Brighton is split into 3 parts

1121 - Brighton St Peters
1122 - Brighton Palace
1123 - Brighton Kemptown

If a Brighton 1841 request comes in, I will attempt to look through 'Palace Ward' to see if they are included - but am loathe to search for anyone who 'may be there' - I think we need more definite proof that they 'should' or 'are' in Brighton before we stat trawling through the enumerators returns - which can take hours.

chris in 1066

[muvva]

Hi Chris,

yes I agree, given the sheer number of pages for Brighton (and other large towns) it seems sensible to have some sort of assurance that we are pretty likely to find who we are looking for.  Mind you, I have to say that until I actually bought the CD, I didn't realise how much time was involved searching it. I have the same 1841 CD as Dimps and have the same problems with many of the pages being too faint to read.

If it's ok with Deborah, I'll take the Kemptown area 1123. Purely because I have Kemps in my family - the Kemp family I am researching is from Mayfield, but hey... you never quite know where people may turn up

I'm still chuckling at the thought of the loo photo, do you still have it Deborah?

Chris

[Dimps]

That leaves me with St Peters then.  I'll have to ask my father about the photo.  My children have just asked me to add this:  and this: