Genealogy Chat

Please can I just remind everyone who checks a census for their rellies to ALWAYS look through the rest of the street/village !! Have just found my gt gt grandfather living next door to my gt grandfather's family (who I found ages ago!) on 1881 - new siblings and everything. I thought he was already dead!!! Feel a right prawn now !! Don't make this mistake folks, remember the extended family in those days tended to stay much closer together than now. Happy hunting all. Maz. XX

maz have u got my e-mail? jan :)

Ooooh Jan - yes please can you send it !!! Not that I am champing at the bit or anything!!! Thanks dear. Maz. XX

I have found 3 different families on 1 census page on 1891, that are ancestors of mine. Didn't find them straight away and felt really silly when I looked properly and there they were! Maggy, West Yorkshire

I found my GG grandma aged 8 in 1881 down the road visiting an elderly lady on census night! - How dare she!!!!

The first time I visited my local LDS Centre, one of the ladies there, who is a bit of an expert on the 1881 census, explained that the best way to get the most out of the census is to imagine you are the enumerator, with your board in your hands. Start at the first street on the fiche, and as you move from house to house try to imagine the path you are taking. Pretty soon it will become apparent that for example not everyone is in when "you" call (and you have to call back to retrieve the return), certain members of families are split - grandchildren staying with grandparents (often permanently), tradespeople with similar occupations are living in close proximity to one another etc, which areas of the town/village are obviously wealthier than others. You will soon remember the routes taken, and if you are lucky enough to have a map of the area, you can trace the same route taken. If not, let your imagination take over. I found this idea fascinating and now I view the computer version of the 1881 in a different light. I no longer just search for one person, I trawl up and down the streets/lanes and note the various names and occupations, and who lived next door to who. It is amazing how many unconnected names and addresses etc stick in the memory, especially when combined with reading through parish records. Jacqui

By the way, the actual wording on the census forms was "Names of each person who abode therein the preceding night" So the head of household's memory was also relied upon - heaven help us if our rellies had a drunken party the night before and couldn't remember who stayed over!! Maz. XX

I have an entire street related to me, never mind neighbours. My mother can remember visiting her aunts and cousins living there in the 1960s - not bad considering her great-great-grandfather was living in that same street in 1851!

When we downloaded the image of the 1901 census we found my husband's grandfather was living next door to his furture wife - two for the price of one! If we had only downloaded the transcription we would have paid twice! Anne

I found three siblings on the same street in the 1881. I will look at the whole street when I next need to find anymore members of the family because they seem to have cropped up in the same street in 1861, 71, 81 & 91 as well as 1901 and the street is also mentioned on documents related to later years eg. when my grandmother left school in 1912 her brother was living on the same street as their ancestors from 1861. Mel