Are you stuck finding an ancestor on the Census?
The census began in 1801, but it was not until 1841 that the names of every person in a dwelling was listed. It is a valuable source of information for family historians looking for their ancestors, but sometimes, frustratingly, you just cannot find the person you are looking for.
There are some key things to remember though. The census merely records where someone was on a particular date, not necessarily where they normally lived. So do not discount a possible entry for the name of your ancestor at an unexpected address. One of our colleagues found their great grandmother staying with their brother in Cardiff rather than at home with her husband in North London! So it's quite possible that not only was someone away from their home on census night, they might have been visiting family or friends.
Another thing to bear in mind, is that many people were not able to read or write, particularly in the earlier censuses. So their information would have been verbally told to someone filling in the form for them. As you might image, this could easily lead to variations in spellings caused by misunderstandings in accent, language or poor education. Don't forget people may have used an alias or their middle name too.
Whilst digitisation of the census enumerator books online has provided greater access, the transcriptions and/or indexing was done using overseas agencies. This can lead to difficulties in finding people probably due to an issue with reading old handwriting and/or the lack of familiarity which English names. An example is the transcribing of Richard T Marchant as Richard Tellerchant.
The age given on the census might also be inaccurate. It is not just a modern phenomenon to be shy about revealing your true age. For young servants, age could be exaggerated in order to get work. It can be amusing to see that despite the census happening every ten years, someone's age goes in steps of 8 - a sign of vanity perhaps.
The answer to all these problems, is to search the census with an open mind. You need to try to search using a variety of spellings and dates of birth. If you cannot find one member of the family, try another as sometimes you may come across the person you were looking for too.
If you still cannot find your ancestor and wish that the enumerators just got it right at the time, do spare a thought for them. Each enumerators had to visit about 200 houses to collect the forms. In poor urban areas, there would often be a different family in each room of a single house. And in rural areas, houses could be miles apart, so we should not be too surprised that some people were missed.
Hopefully you will find who you are looking for in Bekshire, but if you can't feel free to ask us for help by contacting us.