Not at home on census night - what happens? (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Sunday, June 15, 2014, 14:23 (3815 days ago) @ janethowell

Hi Janet,

thanks for saying
"The details are in my recent mail - "Help in general and my Jenkins family in particular"

I hadn't realised that despite reading it today, sorry. May I suggest it will help everyone to help you if you please attach queries like this to the existing thread, or at the very least make a cross-reference to it. Many people visit the website every day but may not have the time to read all the old threads, particularly as many posters will be researching different families and lines.
Thanks.

Regarding your specific search, given the names and potential for spelling variations if I were you I'd first search for wife "Sarah" in the "Bream" and then "Breem" area. Yes there may well be a lot more hits to plugh thro but names such as Shadrach can be a real problem to find, especially as in my experience some of the Census transcribers on Ancestry for example (American prison inmates I'm told?, have absolutely no idea on the names and places in our area) and also appear to have no common sense or ability to think laterally....
Also ref the geographical areas you're searching, dont be too specific ! especially with Ancestry, or it will produce numerous irrelevant hits as far away as GLoucester or even Bristol before finding the correct ones "hidden" under "Wales" etc. !.
I'm from the eastern Cinderford side of the Forest, we very rarely visited Monmouth on the far western side of the Forest yet often went east thro Westbury on Severn etc. So for fifty years my mindset was the Forest is in Gloucestershire, England, which technically it is. However it was a real surprise to me on starting my FH research to find my ancestors in Lydbrook and Coleford were listed as being under "Monmouth", or even "Wales", hence I didnt find them or ignored these hits when using Ancestry etc. I should have realised, as like all? Foresters I had to visit Monmouth to take my driving test c1980. Now I've learnt the Western side of the Forest in Victorian times was administered from Monmouth, in a different county & country !, albeit only just t'other side across the Wye border.
As well as using those sites the LDS "Family Search" website can be VERY helpfull indeed.

Off out to cut the grass now, I'll try and post more later, J.