1911 plus and minus

[Little Nell]

Plus
Found my gt gt aunt Lou, together with 2 of her children and the man who would become her son-in-law (his father had been widowed and married Lou's sister Emily), together with an "adopted" child of 9 which I knew nothing about!!!

Minus
Got my great-grandfather John in census with his daughter Violet but the site won't let me see the image, keeps saying its too busy! Can't believe that anyone other than me wants to view this page - just 2 people in a tiny Norfolk village.

[SueinKent]

Oh Nell how frustrating is that.

[Merry Monty Montgomery]

Plus:

I found my grandfather working in London as a designer of interior decorations. The period 1906-1914 is the time I know the least about him, so this was a real bonus.

Plus (for me, not for my ancestor!):

I found my gg-grandmother had ten children, not seven, but the missing three had died. I was able to find two of these from Bath BMD and a family rumour has it that another child was in fact a twin, but the other baby was stillborn, so I've decided he/she is the final missing child.

Minus:

No Somerset yet :(

[Richard]

Was very suprised to find my great grandad not in the army as expected, or at home in Suffolk, but as a Metropolitan Police constable at Camberwell London! I have papers for him in the Royal Garrison Artillery Militia from ages 16-21 (1905-1910) and on his wedding certificate (1915) he is described as a Bombardier Royal Garrison Artillery. His Medal Index Card showed he ended the war a Sergeant R.G.A. My grandmothers birth cert (1926) he is a shunter on the railways. Therefore I has assumed with some certainty he'd been a soldier and nothing else prior to leaving and working on the railways. I now realise he must have left the militia, joined the police, moved to London, and been recalled into the regular army at outbreak of war. He is the very first policeman in my tree, whole new, and very unexpected, area of research now open to me, even if it was seemingly quite brief, very keen to investigate further after xmas.

I also found my great granmothers brother, who we had been told was adopted by a doctor and his wife as he was a sickly child. He is there, aged 6, on 1911, an adopted child, but to a couple of sisters in their late thirties, both unmarried spinsters, and nothing I can see to suggest they were doctors or married to doctors. They were however living in a ten roomed house, which was considerably better than the 2 room house his sister, great gran, was living in, with her parents and four siblings.

Off to bed, happy xmas everyone!

[Breckland Jane]

On the plus side, found my great uncle with two children I knew nothing about.

On the minus side, where is my grandmother's youngest sister? She is only five and not with her parents or grandparents. I'm wondering if she might be in a hospital or such like and not showing up.

Jane

[Little Nell]

still can't see the Norfolk page!

Richard, I expect you know records for Met Policemen are at Kew.

[Jeanie with one n.]

Plus: found a brother of my grandmother I knew nothing about
minus: My grandfather was not at home on the census and I cant find him. He was 16 and probably at a boarding school. Another minus, Gt Grandfather Wilkes said he had been married for 48 years. Not true, it was 20 to his second wife. Also he calls himself married but she is not there and he does not fill in how many children he had!!

[bev&kev]

I found my grandfather had 3 siblings who died, and another who no-one has ever heard of. Assuming she must have died before the next generation came along, I spent half a day looking for her death, but there isn't one ...... (yet another mystery to follow up, lol)

Not sure if that's a plus or a minus!

[Val and George]

Minus - I can't find any of my Semaine family who we know were living in Shoreditch/Bethnal Green. I have tried many different spelling variations with no luck so far.
I really need to do a 'walk around the area' - which is how I uncovered quite a few of them in previous census. They moved house frequently, but they didn't seem to move too far away, so I have always managed to find them - eventually - with their names transcribed wrongly. Will I ever be able to do this in the 1911? ...stamps foot in frustration..

[Val and George]

Oh Oh - a plus - suddenly my Semaine family have turned up - they must have been out yesterday when I tried!!!
(thinks - I should throw a tantrum more often!!!)

[jenoco]

No big surprises for me but one of my great grandfathers was not at home and I can't find him - unfortunately his name's too common to nail him down.

[gloryer]

MINUS - why is kent always last?

[Rosie Knees]

:( Notts.

I'm only looking for one blinky person! For the rest I can wait

[Kit]

Minus - the cost so I've not viewed images or transcripts. I can wait for now.

Plus - my great grandparents were very easy to find with all children I expected (bar one) in the order I expected them. Have been able to confirm a few details from the indexes alone and to narrow down dates of death.

[Penelope]

Redacted

[Sand Dancer]

Plus side....I like the extra columns especially the "total children born, total living" etc through which I discovered that one of my families had 12 children, not just the 9 I had found, because 3 had died. So after some detective work on FreeBMD I think I've found 2 of the missing 3.

Minus side....not having soundex or similar for searching an ususual name. Only being able to search with the absolute correct spelling is not great, especially when the name has been mistranscribed. However, let's hope the search facility will become more 'broad' eventually.
My main family branch had been mistranscribed (as they are on most other census') because of their unusual name, and I spent a good part of last night putting in every spelling permutation I could think of. At the 47th try, I found them!!

[Merry Monty Montgomery]

I wish I could have something like this to get excited about, but 1911 is too recent

When I win the lottery, I've worked out I have between 300 and 400 families to find in 1911 as I bring as many cousin lines forward with the intension of finding living descendants who are interested in family history

[anniern]

plus I have found quite a few of mine as Gloucestershire is one of the first counties to go live. I have only looked at transcripts as images are so expensive. I had a chuckle as one of mum's cousins occupation is given as daisy worker. As his brother and sister were cheese makers and his father was a farmer I think it probably should have been an R.

Minus cost I would like to look at the side branches as well. Although I know when my great grandparents died it is always a bid sad loosing people between censusus or am I the only person to feel like this. It is quite humbling to realise how young my grandparents were when their parents died. No big suprises.

[maggie_4_7]

Plus

I have found most of my grandfather's siblings (10) and their families.

I have found most of my grandmother's siblings (the 6 that survived) and their families plus my mother's oldest brother (born 1908) living with maternal grandparents.

I have found the London branch of OH's family which is a real plus.

Minus

I still can't find my 'grandmother and grandfather and my mother's second oldest brother born 1909 and I know they were in London, probably a missing or damaged page!...

...and Essex is still not online (OH's other lot)

Other than that its all good...

[Dubonnet lady]

Minus: I'm almost totally dependent on Yorkshire - and Glasgow! :(

Minus: (See my thread headed Divorce) OH has driven me to distraction since discovering huge anomaly - don't know whether to laugh or cry, because he's always praised Grandma as a pillar of the community! :D