Genealogy Chat

I have read several times on the Tips Board people who are offering to help need addresses. Can anyone tell me if I buy the censuses on CD from S&N, if I don't have an address will I not be able to find my ancestors at all? Can you not just scroll the the whole of the CD in the hope of finding them? Obviously other people who have got the CDs haven't got the time to do it for everyone, but if I buy them I'll spend all the time I need. Not having any of them I don't know how these CDs are set up. If anyone can tell me I would really appreciate it, I don't want to waste a lot of money as I have no addresses for the ancestors I want to try and find. Thanks, I don't know what I'd do without this tip board! Susan

Susan, You would need to scroll through the area, hoepfully you have that. But if not then it could be a long job, unless however, the area you want has been surnamed indexed, then you are on winner! Good Luck Kim

Susan To give you an idea. I have the Kent 1871 census and I sometimes do lookups for people, There are no indexes, they are sorted by districts and parishes. Kent 1871 comes on 10 CD's. So the minimum search criteria I would need would be the town/parish. For example when I searched Ashford for someone, this involved looking at 293 pages of scanned documents. Some were faded, some had the most awful writing you could imagine and some reversed the surname and christian name. I aslo did a search of three small towns/villages in north kent which took over two hours. It is a time consuming job and when you do not find someone, you do not know if you missed them or they were not there. I have a lot of sympathy for the transcribers of indexes who sometimes get a lot of flak for mistakes. Gary

I would definately recommend buying the CDs. They are expensive but if the alternative is to travel and stay overnight in the area you are looking at it soon pays! I had to look for ancestors in Hull. I had no address and so trawled through the whole city. It took ages but had the bonus of finding people I didn't even know I was lookinf for!! The writing is sometimes very hard to read and the 1841 census is quite often completely illegible. Having said that I have found some valuable things on 1841. Later censuses are better. Good luck! Anne

Thank you, thank you everyone. I was getting rather worried I wouldn't be able to find anyone, but like you say it might take me hours and I'm sure it will, but I might find more than I'm looking for. I didn't imagine there could be ten CDs for one area for one year! Some of my ancestors I haven't even got a district for, so like you say it could be a long drawn out process. At least now I know what I'm letting myself in for and not wasting my money, they're not cheap are they! Thanks for your help. I'll order them now. Susan

I bought the 1881 and find its a boon. It cost about £30 from LDS. I know I can get the info online but, having my own, I can spend hours on it. One can look up neighbours and by scrolling along streets house by house, can cover a small town in a couple of hours (eg Abingdon) without names or addresses (one needs A name to start). By this means I picked up a number of rellies. I also have the London 1891 DVD and the Middlesex 1841. They are useful but more difficult to use being scanned facsimiles with no name index.

The cost of the CD sets varies from about £30 to £50 per county per year in the winter sales at the moment. Look for the S & N genealogy site - genealogysupplies. - you can guess the c o m that follows!! Anne

I bought my wirral census from the cheshire FHS Each section of cheshire costs £20 and Wirral is split into two of those sections. Its a costly business but as said above, you can do your research from the comfort of your own home! I did buy 1841 for the whole of cheshire for 32.50 from stepping stones, so it really does vary and of course you can also buy some index on fiche which can be enough for your needs. Barbara

Thanks everyone for your comments. This Tips Board really does help doesn't it? You're not doing anything blind anymore and get so much help from everyone. I really appreciate it. Susan

I can`t get any certificates for my GGGrandfather birth, Marrige or death but I have tracked him through Census records. Some I did at the Archieves but much better the CD`s at home even though it takes ages. Mary