DetectingWales.com

I joined ancestry.co.uk last week. Anyone else a member as I'd like to ask advice on how to search it if anyone could help. Also willing to do look ups if anyone needs one.

Hi Jon

Hubbies been a member for 4 years. I've used it though not recently but could prob. help if you need it.

Val

Great stuff! What I'd like to do is search an address on the Census and not search for people. I had the 1881 Census on CDs and you were able to search a particular vicinity on that but I can't find a way of doing it on ancestry.com. It's driving me nuts! I know where the family lived in 1901 but through being wrongly transcribed or something I can't find them...most irritating  :-\ Any help appreciated.

The family changed their names en masse from TURK to MILLS so something was afoot. I would never have tracked them down except for a converstaion with an octogenarian aunt twenty odd years ago. Glad I wrote it all down at the time.

HI Jon,

I am a member of Ancestry. You should be able to search for a particular address on advanced search.

I will have a go and let you know how I did it if its possible.

Eric

I've been an ancestry member for two years. You can't just stick an address in and search for it. However if you can find out which enumerated district your address is in then you can go to that set of scanned documents and search page by page.

Check this link (I hope it works), on the right side of the page you can go through the menus until you get the right district.

http://http://search.ancestry.co.uk/Browse/list.aspx?dbid=7619&path=Cheshire.Hockenhull&aid=10505988&pid=1954528&sid=

On some census years you can put the street name in the 'keywords' box and this finds the correct data.

Hi Jon
Rob is right, you can't do a search for the address. Another alternative way to find it is long winded but it works. Say you want the 1901 census
Enter a name i.e John Mills + date of birth + area
Look for 'Return to Search Results' next to that are the area details i.e.Monmouth-Newport-District 54
Click on Newport. This will give you access to all the districts covered in Newport. Each one has a header page with exact details of where from - to the district is.
Working together with a current street map or Google Earth (click on Roads) you can see where each street is.
Very long winded in a big place like Newport but it can be done. A lot of the streets still exist.

Have you tried a one name search. Sometimes it's easier, specially if you know date and place of birth or have an unusual christian name.(you can search for christian names) Try alternative ways of spelling. You wouldn't believe how many ways Mills can be entered. Try Mils, Hills, Miles, Wills, ect. Eventually you'll learn every trick in the book. I'm sure the Emunerators where foreign and didn't understand the regional accents.  Val

Cheers for the advice guys. I'll give it a go. I joined Gwent Family History Society in 1999 so have been at it a while. The ancestry site could do with a few tweaks. I know what you mean with the transcription errors. My HORLOR line has been spelt HORLOR, HORLER, HARLOR, HERLER,HORLEY,HAWLER,HOWLER (My favourite!)

My great great grandfather changing his name from Turk to Mills has given me YEARS of fun and games! I guess he was a naughty boy....

At least you have unusual surnames, my 32 great great grandparents are mostly Jones, the rest are Davies, Hughes, Williams and Thomas - very hard to trace people when there are so many people with the same name in the villages!

Yup. I know what you mean. My great grandmother was a DAVIES. Margaret Davies. Father Tom, mother Ann. Brother David. I gave up on that one for quite a while!