Here on the helpdesk at the History Centre we offer help to many of our visitors who are either unsure of using the census online or are having problems tracing their ancestors when using it.



The Helpdesk

During our many hours spent giving help and guidance we have spotted a few common problems encountered by our visitors. We thought it would be good to share our knowledge with those of you who may also be experiencing difficulties. Hopefully some of the tips will be useful and give you some fresh ideas, encourage you to keep looking and with luck, maybe even solve those tricky problems once and for all!

Why are only half my family on the census page?

The household will continue on the next page. Click on the ‘Next’ icon at the top of the screen and the next page will be shown.

 
Why can’t I find my ancestor on a particular census?

Sometimes names have been transcribed incorrectly. Try using the names of other family members or cutting down the amount of information used on the search page, for instance just putting the county down under residence or putting no residence and just using the place of birth if you know it. The description of the head of the household may be misleading; the true head may have been absent on the night the census was taken. If the wife is classed as ‘married’ rather than ‘widow’, then this is probably the case. Read on to find out more...

 Make sure that the box ‘exact matches only’ at the top of the search page is unticked. You can also try using a wildcard search. Use an ‘*’ to replace zero or more characters (there needs to be a minimum of three existing letters in the search). The asterix can be used at the beginning or end of a word, for example Dav* to cover the surnames Davis or Davies. A ‘?’ replaces one character, for example Anders?n can be used for the surname Anderson or Andersen.

How can I look at a whole town or village on the census?

If you have one ancestor in a village and you’d like to see who their neighbours are or who else was living in the same town or village you can look through the whole census return by going up to the ‘previous’ and ‘next’ buttons at the top of the screen. Enter the number one in the ‘image number’ box and press ‘go’ and you can use the next icon button to look at through the pages. You can also browse a whole community without using a person’s name; just enter the parish name on the search page under ‘civil parish’.

 Is there a quick way of looking at a census record again?

If you are not printing the census images it is very useful to make a note of the page, folio and piece numbers of the census entries you are interested in. The page number is printed, for example ‘page 1’ in small type at the top right hand side of the census page. Above it is the larger stamped folio number, for example ‘121’. The piece number is situated at the bottom of the census image and reads, for example ‘Reference: RG13/1926’. If you enter these at the bottom sections of the search page (where you enter the individual’s details to search for them), you will find the entry you wanted amongst a small list. If you also include the surname you will find an exact match.


How the census can help a search in the parish registers

Some visitors choose not to pay for birth, marriage or death certificates and use the parish registers instead at the County Record Office. If they would rather do this there is information they can access with Ancestry to aide their research. The 1851-1911 Census’ have a section entitled ‘Where Born’. This can give the researcher an idea of where to begin looking for a baptism in the parish registers (although it is not always completely accurate).

Although there are various parish records available on Ancestry, it is advisable to use caution if you are searching these, and they should not be used as a substitute for searching the parish records at the relevant County Record Office.

The Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre Helpdesk Team