The aim of the talk was to look at common problems on finding ancestors that appear to be missing, give tricks of the trade, looking for difficult surnames and warning that the information available is often found to be incorrect.
TRANSCRIPTION ERRORS
Information is lost during the transcriptions of Censuses that were taken every ten years from 1841 to 1921 and there are actual transcription errors. For example, if the transcription of a surname is wrong then it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to find correct answers. It must be remembered as well that all the records of the 1931 Census were lost in a fire, the 1941 one was not undertaken and the 1939 Register had limited information so you are relying on all the previous Censuses for the searches. The speaker obtained a copy of a Pattenden Will with some family connections and used this to search for the named beneficiaries in the Henfield Censuses. Pattenden is not a common surname for transcribers and is often mistranscribed.
Many search engines permit phonetic searches – so Pattenden transcribed as Pattonden or Pettenden returned results. However, a mistranscription as Rottendon was not traceable using the surname. She explained that if initial searches failed to trace family using the surname, one possibility was to try first names linked to birth places and date of birth. If initial searches failed, using a five-year allowance either side of the birth date might trace families where the date of birth was incorrect.
First names can also be a problem. In 1861 a family member named Fitzwalter was transcribed as Waller, but in 1851 was transcribed as Walker, and he also appears as Walter in other Census entries. Another issue she identified was that it appeared that Edward Pattenden’s wife Maria had died and he had remarried – in later Censuses the wife was Catherine. But research into the wider family tree via the Census entries showed that Maria Pattenden and Catherine Pattenden both had a sister called Sarah Tugwell – Maria had apparently changed her Christian name to Catherine, her middle name, after her husband’s death.
Another beneficiary of the Will, Richard Lemaire, appeared as Lomax in 1861 but as Leonard in 1891, and with his occupation as professor misspelt, and born in Gillford in Sussex instead of Guildford in Surrey – all indicating how poor transcription can affect searches. In addition, the search facility for date of birth is taken from the transcribed year of birth calculated from the age on the Census form. An example of how this can impact on a search was shown by a transcription which gave Charles aged 7 in 1891 as born in 1884 and his brother Harry aged 5 as born in 1886, when actually in 1891 they were aged 17 and 13, giving incorrect years of birth.
Another example of how you can be misled is with occupations listed. In 1881 two residents living in Thomas Street, Reading were listed as a Railway Publican. The original documents were checked and it was discovered they were actually Railway Policemen.
SECRETS AND LIES
Why would you lie on a Census form? Perhaps you were too young to actually marry, or had no idea of the actual date such as “born the year the horse died”, or perhaps you were a widow with children who were actually illegitimate. In the 1911 Census the householder filled in the form, not an enumerator, so the returns should theoretically be more accurate – the speaker pointed out that her father’s sister’s name, Gwenllian, was only accurately spelled in 1911.
But not everyone filled out the 1911 Census truthfully. James Edward Holbrook claimed in 1911 to have been married for 15 years, and had a wife and two sons to prove it, but he was single in 1901 and his sons’ births were registered under their mother’s maiden name. It was found that he had married Beatrice Olive Perryman in Oct-Dec 1907 and in the 1911 Census had only been married for four years. His wife lied about her age in 1911 too, to make it appear that she was older than she actually was when their son was born.
In undertaking a search for a ‘lost’ marriage, Sue suggested using a 10 year range to improve the chances of finding the person or people you are looking for.
STOLEN AWAY
It has been claimed that in the 19th century people did not travel far from where they lived but this is not always true. Sue had great difficulty in tracing her great-great-grandfather’s brother Courtenay Harry, firstly due to the often-mistaken idea that Harry was a Christian name and Courtenay a surname. In addition, he worked both as a draper and as a commercial traveller.
That meant in 1881 his family was living in Lyme Regis with two of his children born in Yorkshire 1876 and 1879 and in 1891 three more children listed as born in Hackney. In the 1871 Census he was listed as Harry A Courtenay, and in 1891 his first name was mistranscribed as Constance. Both errors made him difficult to trace and meant a degree of ingenuity had to be used in carrying out searches, including tracing him via his children, and via his wife.
COMMERCIAL DIRECTORIES
Many of these are available online, especially those on the Leicester University website, to help trace ancestors. Sue has used these to help trace family members in London and elsewhere, and then used this information to broaden Census searches.
As an example, using Courtenay as a search term, she traced Courtenay Harry in the 1893 Cornwall Directory, and John Courtenay Harry in the 1855 Kent Directory. Checking in Kent in the 1861 Census, she found, not John, but John’s wife, Mary A Harry who had usefully explained to the enumerator that she was the wife of a commercial traveller for a Manchester warehouse.
https://le.ac.uk/library/special-collections/explore/historical-directories
STRAYS
It should be remembered that women did not necessarily marry in their home area and if a man died in a hotel away from home it might be reported in a different press from where he lived, or even that they had no idea who he was. Further, due to industrial disputes, the 1921 Census was taken in June during the holiday season, meaning a massive influx to seaside resorts like Blackpool, with many people not from the town being recorded on the day as residing there. This means Census returns for a family may be much harder to trace.
If you were employed as a servant you could move miles away from your birthplace. Sarah E. Gamble was born in Yorkshire but moved to Devon with the family employing her according to the 1881 Census. In the 1901 Census Albert H. Tull employed a cook born in Holland, a governess born in Germany, maids from Henley and Burghfield and a ladies maid from Thetford in Norfolk.
STAYING WITH FRIENDS
Family members could also visit other members of the family. In the Census return for 1871, Ester Harry, originally from Abergavenny, and her small daughter Marian, were visiting her father-in-law, William B Harry in Helston in Cornwall. Ester’s husband, Courtenay Harry, was in Lancashire on business in the same Census, so none of them were at home in Hackney. Sue’s great-grandfather George Holbrook, his wife and younger sons also appear in the 1891 Census staying in Berkshire with his brother Ezekiel. In the 1911 Census in Suffolk, Sue traced her grandmother’s two sisters, Ann Holbrook and Janie Hockey, in Janie’s husband’s house in Ipswich. An unexpected benefit of this was that Henry William Hockey is Benjamin Britten’s uncle.
AFTER WW1
Due to deaths of husbands etc. in the war and possibly due to financial circumstances, many women were forced to move away from where they used to live. One way of tracing them was shown by Sue in looking at the names of the men listed on the Thatcham War Memorial and looking at the 1921 Census for that area. Elsie Maud Savager remarried to become a Reeves but her son Leonard Savager kept his father’s name and this family could be traced by this. On the 1921 Census Amy Beatrice Rose was found in London, her younger son still lived with her and her husband’s war pension record helped trace her.
STRAYS IN THE NEWS
Searches of the newspapers such as the London Gazette are useful sources especially as they publish names of people away from home, as well as marriages, deaths, and military news.
A West Briton Newspaper of 6th December 1850 gives details of a fire in Helston, and the death of Thomas Harry on the same evening, and in the edition of 19th June 1840 it records that Joseph Harry died of apoplexy, with details of the Horse & Jockey pub where he lived.
Other snippets of news could give useful personal details. In a West Briton edition of 1816 a description of a named man being sought was given with details such as height, tattoos, clothes. In another, details of a father who went to church with his daughter who subsequently walked out of the church and the subsequent search for her are given.
SCHOOL LISTS
These are a useful source for searches. Sue used the IVER GRAMMAR SCHOOL list on the Census that gave the names and ages of the children and information on their birthplace.
STRAYS ABROAD
To find those who have moved abroad Findmypast is recommended, as passenger lists are available 1890 -1960. Doris C. Harry born in 1887 was found to have left the port of Liverpool in 1935 bound for Adelaide, Australia.
GRAVES LIST SEARCH
A search of the graves list in AUSTRALIA showed in North Road Cemetery in Nailsworth, South Australia there was a relation. Oddly a local newspaper records a death on Monday 27th May 1889 that occurred in Helston Cornwall.
https://www.nla.gov.au/research-guides/cemetery-records/online
It should be remembered that the Australian newspapers online are free to search.
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/
STRAYS IN ASYLUMS AND WORKHOUSES
The problem with Census searches for Asylums is that no surname is listed, only the initials, but age and place of birth are given. With Workhouse Census records you do get the surname, age, year born and place of birth, and often some occupation details as well.
STRAYS IN THE MILITARY
If you have a picture of a family member in uniform their regiment etc. can be traced via http://www.uniformology.com/. William Ellis who served in WW1 was traced via a badge on his uniform. The London Gazette is free to search and it records details of promotions etc. such as on 12th November 1917 it lists William Ellis as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Bedfordshire Regiment – from this his service record could be obtained. The War Graves Commission is another source for deceased soldiers as it gives details of deaths, where buried etc.
STRAYS IN WILLS
Sue found the Will of William Harry from 1670 and although it took her two weeks to transcribe it gave a wealth of information concerning children and witnesses. If transcribing is too difficult then the local Family History Society can help put you in touch with somebody that can.
Remember that a Wills and Probate Index search can lead to details of death, Probate date, family, jobs and effects.
https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk/
SURPRISES
In her searches Sue found out that a relation she thought had died unmarried in 1949, was listed as married in her Mother’s Will. Tracking her back through her husband’s surname, she found that she married in 1912, and could then trace her in the 1921 Census.
Finally, Sue showed a photograph taken at a Handel’s ‘Messiah’ concert in Ipswich with the conductor William Hockey, and on the stage was Miss Barwell Holbrook, a professional singer, who was Sue’s grandmother. It is the only picture she has of her at a performance.
This meeting covered so much information to help find ancestors that appear difficult to find, and sites to search.
