Genealogy Chat

Can someone please tell me what this is as I am on the verge of going and buying some vouchers. Are we talking about a free download to decode the census and what does it decode? TRacy

It will sort out your search results into households. It tells you their age, where they were born etc but will not give you the street name and number. I have gained a lot of information using the decoder. Good luck whatever you decide to do. Susan

Thanks Susan i'm not going to be able to get very far at the moment with my research for my tree but am lookinging into my husband's. I've found 2 search results in the 1901 census for his grandfather; but haven't been able to view them yet, maybe wednesday I'll be able to get to the library to get some vouchers. So does the decoder only sort the images out that you have already viewed by paying? Tracy

When you go on the site you can search for free...eg. if you search by name and age you will get a list of everyone on the census who matches your search. They are all individual entries giving name, age, occupation etc and area they were living in on the census date. What the decoder does is sort all your results into households. So if you were searching for a John Dixon and a Hannah Dixon who you knew were married at the time, the decoder would tell you which John was living which Hannah. When you pay to use the site you can see the household without doing all the searching for everyone individually. Hope this helps. Susan

I see....it's very clever and very confusing!! This decoder is downloadable? Tracy

yes.. http://www.censusdecoder[.]com/

Yes, you can get it from http(://)censusdecoder (.) com. IT is not as confusing as I made it sound..lol.It is very easy to use. good luck Susan

You can search the index and the decoder program will both save your searches and also extract some more information from it. But if you want to see the original pages then you will have to pay. You can pay online with a credit card. You set an upper limit but don't set it to the minimum charges (£5.00). You are better getting the images of the pages at 75p each rather transcriptions at 50p. You are not then relying on someone else's interpretation of the writing. Also you see the surrounding households which can be interesting and occasionally you find a relative living a few doors away. You can save the pages to your hard disc and also print them. If you set your upper limit to £5.00 then you will only get 6 pages at £0.75 i.e. £4.50's worth before reaching you limit. Set your upper limit to £20 or whatever and then you can spend £9.00 on 12 pages and close the account i.e. only pay £9.00 Very occasionally a household will be split over two pages but it does not happen very often. MB

I have used the decoder to find the right families, made a note of them, then when I have enough to make it worth paying to view them, I have paid and printed them off. There is a minimum charge of £5, so you need to view at least 7, at 75p each. Be careful because you have to use your credits within 48 hours though. Maggy, Featherstone, West Yorkshire