If your searches draw a blank try a Soundex search (offered by many of the major genealogy websites) which disregards vowels and some common consonants, and also phonetic spelling – spelling words the way they sound when spoken. The spelling of both first names and surnames was more fluid in years gone by and you may find an ancestor listed on different censuses with variants of the same surname, eg Hanney, Hanney, Ainey, and so on. Also, always examine the original census entry rather than just a transcript, as you may be able to identify a misspelling at source. If you can’t find your ancestor where you expect them, try searching for a different member of the same family, looking at nearby streets, and searching using the variants in the next paragraph. Has there been a transcription error?ĭespite the hard work of census enumerators over the decades, the truth is that errors were made, either at the point the census was taken, or as census information has been transferred into different formats over the years. Be open minded when conducting your search and don’t bypass those results which don’t match the address or town you have in mind. He or she may have been a live-in servant or lodger, resident in a hospital or workhouse, or even on board a ship. Perhaps at the time of the census your ancestor was living in a set-up which you hadn’t imagined. Did they live outside a ‘traditional’ home set-up? Check out our guide to using passenger lists to help identify missing ancestors. In keeping with the above point, if an ancestor is missing from the census it may be that he or she had emigrated or was visiting family overseas.
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