Genealogy Chat

This has been on the board before, but I think it's worth putting it up again for any new members. If you know the name of one of your ancestors but have no info on the rest of the family, check to see if he/she is also on 1901. If he/she, is try the following. 1. Enter the details of the person again and then press the "process search" button. 2. Now enter just the surname, gender female and also the administrative county of your known ancestor into the "place keyworks" block. Also change the "limit result list to" 30 entries per page. When the results come up, click the "process search" button again. 3. Repeat stage two but this time change the gender to male. 4.This time, after clicking the "process results" button, click the "show results" button. Now click the "group by" button and click on "person id". The census decoder will now group all the people who were living at the same address when the census was carried out. I used this system yesterday only knowing the name of one of my male ancestors. It brought up his wife, son & daughter with their age and year of birth. If I haven't explained it clear enough, someone here on GC will no doubt explain further. Hope this helps someone. Terry

Hi Terry Thankyou for that tip.. as a newbie i was wondering what the decoder was... Will be trying that tomorrow,, thanks again Kate

I've had a look at the 1901 decoder site, but seen all those download buttons and chickened out. How do you know what to do, when, where and why? Jan

Lesley The "process Search" button is at the top left hand side of the screen next to the "show Browser" button. Jan Have you downloaded 1901 and installed it ?? if not just follow the instructions, even I managed it and I'm a computor dinosaur. Any probs just shout for help here on the board. Terry

Hiya Can I ask someone whats the benefit of using the decoder to the 1901 census? I tried to download it but stopped are you supposed to open the file and save it somewhere or do you save it? I never know what to do next. thanks Nadia

Terry, I must be being completely dim but ive had a look and just cant figure out how to download and install it!. Im on the hiomepage for the census and been through all the bits but cant seem to find a download....am i at the right starting point?? Demelza

Nadia; The benefit of using the decoder are numerous. I find the most beneficial is that you can download a mountain of 'likely suspects' (ie family) and then it will sort them in a fashion into households for you. If you know the name of perhaps your gfather and where he lived you can put in that info. Then you search for just the surname with just male then same with just female. Don't put in any forenames or other info. Sometimes it will tell you that there are too many results (like with Smith!!) so you will need to put in a keyword like a county. When you select SAVE RESULTS from the decoder toolbar, it will give you the option on what to save it too. I usually use excel as it is very easy to work with. Name it what you like and then save. Once you have saved the info onto a spreadsheet (excel) then you have a record to browse at your leisure. It saves you wasting money viewing pages or individuals on the 1901 site that aren't yours. It also may turn up rellies you didn't know existed! Or other tidbits of info like a grandchild visiting with its mother and there you have a married name that perhapss you didn't know of. It also gives occupations, ages at the time of the census, address and where they were born. HTH Sonja

Demelza; The download you are seeking will not be on the 1901 census page. You need to go to a good search engine like Google. Type in the Search box '1901 census decoder'. It usually comes up top of the list. Click on it and follow the instructions. You will need to save it to your C drive. When you want to search for someone, open the decoder (I have mine on a desktop shortcut!) it will automatically come up with 1901 site. You will notice a toolbar with large buttons across the top. This belongs to the decoder. Start with a name you know was on there and just have a play. If you get stuck, just holler! HTH Sonja

Sonja, Thanks very much for that, ive just this second searched for that and im just about to download it.....hopefully all should go well and i wont have any trouble.....then again me and computers dont mix!!! Demelza

Demelza Just want to say you have a wonderful name!

Do you still have to pay to use the 1901, the same as if you look on the 1901 site? Jan

Helen, Thanks.. Yes it is nice and different but not always a good thing!.....many a time ive had to repeatedly tell people how to say it!!! Not too bad now but during my school days could be a tad embarrassing as you can imagine......lol Demelza

Jan, From what i can gather you still have to pay a fee (same as the 1901 census) in the same you would normally to view the actual details, Im looking now so ill tell you for definate in 10 mins or so. Demelza

Hi Jan No if you use the decoder you do not have to pay. Having said that, the decoder is not a tool to give you the same image that the 1901 site will and that you have to pay for. It is more a thing designed to stop all those wasted p's looking for families or looking up the wrong John Smith!! If you get my drift? It is really handy to have as I have found a few rellies I didn't know existed! HTH Sonja

Thanks Terence. Have just downloaded the decoder and tried it out. BRILLIANT! Fran.

Just to keep this one handy. Mick.

Terence Great to let everyone know about the decoder. I found out about it recently through this page and used it to trace family 'missing' from the 1901 census. I entered only the christian names, age & place of birth of all family members that were known to me. Guess what! They had changed their surname - all family members details were correct but registered on the census not as ABEL but RUSSELL. We had heard a story that someone had changed their name at some point in their lives but we didn't know who. Even when you've pressed result and don't get the answers you want you can still add details by pressing the process button and then results again. Its wonderful - where would we be without it!!! We've just paid to get the view of the entry - how much money the decoder must have saved me!! Chrissie