Quirks of the 1911 and I am sure there are many more

[Janet]

Looking for someone on the freeview aspect of the 1911 Census I keyed in Bishops Stortford as the name of the place of interest along with just a surname and nothing came up. Strange, as I had just found one in Bishops Stortford so I looked hard at the placename and realised that Bishops Stortford was actually spelt Bishop's Stortford and when I keyed this transcript in with the name of interest up came the whole family that I am interested in with more names to look up on Free BMD! And I still have not spent any more.

Janet

[Margaret in Burton]

Something to be aware of is this:

I was looking for a family born in Stamford Lincs.

I didn't put Lincs just Stamford. Thought I had found them and clicked on the transcription and its a different family born in Stamford Hill, London.

The index only gave Stamford.

Waste of 10 credits.

[Pat Hope]

I have found that Bradford Manchester being transcribed as Bradford Yorkshire

[Jill on the A272]

...and Worthing, Sussex appears on my Granny's entry as Surrey (though the handwritten entry is clear)...

[Christine in Herts]

Something to be aware of is this:

I was looking for a family born in Stamford Lincs.

I didn't put Lincs just Stamford. Thought I had found them and clicked on the transcription and its a different family born in Stamford Hill, London.

The index only gave Stamford.

Waste of 10 credits.

That sounds like something worth a complaint. The index information was inadequate, and so misleading.

Christine
PS - What's the Stamford link? I went to school there.

[Lin Fisher]

I was looking for people in Ilkeston Derbyhsire last night and they are all under Basford Nottingham. That is the registration area and I knew it was mine as it was an unusual name.

I didn't pay for any of them so I don't know what it actually said on the census form.

Lin

[Kath nr the Crooked Spire]

I have only done the free searches up to now (trying to be sure I have the right ones) and sometimes typing in the town of birth will not bring up the person but typing in the county will. I expect it is whatever they wrote on the census form.

I have also had to try several different spellings of first names to get a result, it seems it has to be exact.

[Oscar]

'Bootle' seems to have moved from Lancashire to 'Lancaster' on one of mine!

Gwyn

[Margaret in Burton]

That sounds like something worth a complaint. The index information was inadequate, and so misleading.

Christine
PS - What's the Stamford link? I went to school there.

Hi Christine

The name was Newey but I think all of the females married and moved away. I did find one of mine, male, in 1911 though.

I'll have to look into complaining.

Edit:

Where would I look to make a complaint?

[KiteRunner]

I don't understand - if you search for surname Newey and residence Stamford, the list of matches shows a few people in Stamford Lincolnshire and lots in Hackney London. But the county is displayed so I don't see how you could mistake one for the other?

[Margaret in Burton]

I don't understand - if you search for surname Newey and residence Stamford, the list of matches shows a few people in Stamford Lincolnshire and lots in Hackney London. But the county is displayed so I don't see how you could mistake one for the other?

Mmmmmmm

I'm sure I didn't when I did the search. This was during the beta testing. I wonder if that made a difference.

[Richard in Perth]

A tip for narrowing your search results to a particular district (or sub-district): If you have already got one transcription or image in the district of interest, have a look at the reference number that is given on the "my records" page. This will look something like:

RG14PN21774 RG78PN1297 RD449 SD1 ED22 SN111

The "RD" part of this is a unique number for the registration district and the "SD" is likewise for the sub-district within that district. You can then use these numbers in subsequent searches to restrict your search results to that area. On the search page, make sure that you have "advanced fields" showing, then enter the RD and optionally the SD numbers in the "census reference" box (third from the end). This will enable you to find all occurrences of a particular surname within that district.