Top Census Searching Tips

As experts in family research, Kin Tree are pleased to pass on some of our top tips for searching census returns. Don't forget though it can often save you time and money to ask an expert for help so please feel free to get in touch for a free chat. We offer hourly rates or packages so you are always in control of how much you spend.  Contact us at kintree@ymail.com

Top Census Searching Tips

Names

People's names were written down by the enumerators and so often names were spelt incorrectly or even misheard.  After that, these records have been transcribed and however good the transcriptions are, there is room for error and illegible writing!  It's a good idea to included the various options such as soundex that widens the return of names. 

Birth Dates

Even when you know a person's exact details such as their birth date, it is better to give a wider search for their birth year.  Sometimes there can be different ages given on each census as people were much more vague about details such as their date of birth. Also, it's worth remembering that depending on when their birthday falls, their birth year has often been calculated from the age at the time of the census and takes no account of whether they have had a birthday that year. 

Official Name Vs Every Day Name

Census records often recorded the name that a person was known by rather than their birth name. It could be something easy like Tom for Thomas or Peggy for Margaret but it can be enough to throw a spanner in the works.  It's always worth trying variations of the name to see if it produces results. 

Unusual First Names

It can be great to search for unusual surnames in general family research but within the census, an unusual first name can be a great bonus too.  If you are having problems, try putting only the first name in if it is unusual and it will often bring up the result for which you are searching.

Family Connections

Check out the census returns for other members of the family.  You may find your ancestor living with them!  Especially useful for tracking down younger and older relations.

Census Years

When you can select more than one census at a time then select to search only one at a time.  In most searches, the more years that the search engine has to search through, the less specific it is with the results it returns.  

Away From Home At The Census

Many people were absent from home on the night of the census.  This means they will not be recorded at the expected address.  They could be visiting someone, in the armed forces, hospital or prison, for example.

Less Is More!

Don't feel the need to fill in all the search information in the boxes provided.  If you do, it only takes only one thing to be different and you will not find what you are looking for. It's easier to refine your search further if you need to but sometimes it is necessary to simply look through a number of results to find the correct one! 

Different Site, Different Results

There are often multiple sites where you can search for census records.  Often a search on one can produce no results whilst on another site, the same search will bring up your record straight away. 

Don't stick to the same search variations

Things like a wildcard search, soundex, fuzzy matching are a good way to look for alternative spellings but each indexing method will always leave some variations out that you might expect it to include.  So remember to try all the variations if your favourite doesn't return what you are looking for.

Keep Notes

Record all the information on the census.  You can find that even those who seem like no more that casual visitors can be part of your family's story in the future!

Don't Give Up!

Even when you think that you have exhausted all avenues, remember to keep all the information you have.  There is new information available all the time which can help to track down your ancestors.

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Tracking Down That Elusive Ancestor

Anyone tracing their family tree will have come across that problem where you know that you should be able to find an ancestor in a particular index but they don't seem to be there. Census records are a common area where ancestors seem to "disappear" for example.

How can we find these elusive ancestors and why might they disappear off the records?

The are common reasons why our ancestors might disappear.

• Spelling - Names were normally written down by the person who was officially recording an event. Different people might use different spelling variations.  There could be a mistake simply because the person recording information misheard a name.

• AKA - Often people were not known by their birth name, The name on the birth certificate may say, for example, Jane Mary Paterson. On records such as the census on some occasions she may have been recorded as Jane however if she was known as Mary, it could have been this that is recorded or many people called Jane were known as Jean, Jeannie or Janet.  She may also appear with a completely different first name because although she was registered as Jane, she gets called Anne, for example.

• Transcription errors - Old handwriting may not be clear so it is easy for errors to be made with transcriptions.  People are not perfect and transcriptions are often done by volunteers who are giving their best efforts. Sometimes people simply make a mistake.

• Indexes - Sites use different methods of indexing for the same information so how you might extract the information in one will not work on another or would bring  forward some results that are the same and some that are different.

So how might we find them?

• Using wildcards, soundex and all the other search tools can help widen the search but can also bring different results depending on what site that you use. Sites will often give you variations on the spelling of a name but try the same search on different sites and you will come up with a different set of results according to which names they think match closely enough to your original enquiry. 

• Finding out information about your ancestor from other sources may shed some light on where they were or the name by which they were known.

• Sometimes it is a case of sitting down and going through pages of information page by page.

• It's important to check a number of sites to find an elusive ancestor or to cross reference your results where the name varies from what you were expecting. This can be expensive of course as most websites cost money to access and time consuming if you are unaware of the best strategies.

How do you cut down on costs and use the best strategies?

At Kin Tree, we subscribe and use a number of websites so paying for an hour or two of our time will cost a lot less than subscribing to all the sites yourself.  Also, being expert researchers we know the best strategies to get results. Contact us for a no obligation chat or further information at:

kintree@ymail.com

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