This Can't be Right

[Miss Poohs]

I've taken the plunge and joined Ancestry, but and it's a big BUT, I can't find anything on it.

When I enter any search details, names, dates, areas all I get are what look like random lists full of vaguely alphabet related names, but dates and places all over the place.

I even entered the details for my MIL - I know her exact DOB, place and mother maiden name and it's not finding anything. I know it's there, I've ordered a copy, but why isn't Ancestry finding anything?

[Jockbird]

Hi!

Now I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong but I think your mum being born circa 1924 is too young to show up on Ancestry, hence the trawl through the pages of the full Births.

Try popping in one of your Scottish ancestors you know about for an 1861 or earlier census and you may have more joy and it will be a good test run....just don't be surprised at what Ancestry may throw back at you...see one of the posts on OCR madness which will explain all.

You may well find you have more joy when you get the marriage cert of your MIL's parents as they may well appear on the 1901 censes....you could always give it a go and try 1901 with one of their names and Toxteth Park and see if you strike lucky. ok you won't know which are yours but you can try it out and you can have a shortlist for when that cert plops through the post box

Ancestry is good for England but only before 1915 or so, otherwise it's just plain old trawling through.

There are also the American bits which I've only dabbled in briefly but they are good too but there are others on here who know so much more in that respect.

Best wishes
Donna
x

[HeatherH]

You hit the nail on the head Jock.
Ancestry.co.uk is mainly for England and Wales . They have some parish records for Scotland and the recent addition of the 1841,1851 and 1861 census. Also the BMD info for England and Wales is same as FreeBMD. One benefit of the 3 Scottish census is I can look for just first names and although it takes a while I can find any that have been mistranscribed or were just spelt different to begin with.then I can look at the original on Scotlands People. Saves a good bit of hit or miss and quite a few pounds.Hope they will soon add the remaining census index as well .
Happy Hunting,
HeatherH

[Miss Poohs]

Thanks guys.

It was mainly for the English and dare I say it Irish (some hope) connections I signed for Ancestry.

I know MIL has brothers and I'd love to find out more, looks like I'm going to be trawlin' lots

Wish that birth cert would hurry up - I've no patience.

[trish1]

I never do a "general search" on ancestry and always specify "exact" for a match where the option is given. (Sometimes a soundex search on exact match is useful). Otherwise it returns thousands of names that have a vague resemblance (often only related to a given name) to whom you are looking for.

Because of transcription problems with Ancestry census data (including Scotland 1841-1861) this may mean searching by given names only - however you can reference counties and parishes, so can often locate who you are looking for.

Every data base on Ancestry can be searched separately, so check every one that may contain some of your family & search them separately. I completely ignore all the "user submitted" data as much of this seems to be folks from the US proving they are related to the British Royals - or have ancestors on the Mayflower

If you ar searching the English/Wales BDMs - the fully indexed ones 1837-1983 are simply a copy of FreeBDM and are usually not as up to date as FreeBDM. The FULL index 1837-1983 is only indexed by the first and last name on each page - so you have to open and manually check each possible page to find your folks. Information available improves slightly into the 20th century with "mothers maiden name" next to births about 1912 (I can't remember the exact date) and partners name eventually appearing on marriage entries. At some stage - I think the 1960s date of birth replaces age on death index records.

Patience is definitely needed when searching these records BUT they are online right through the 20th Century. In Australia we can access no birth records after about 1920.

Trish

[SarahND]

Because of transcription problems with Ancestry census data (including Scotland 1841-1861) this may mean searching by given names only - however you can reference counties and parishes, so can often locate who you are looking for.

I would add that you don't even need a given name. Sometimes I find people by approximate age and sex only The usefulness of this depends, of course, on how common the name is. Try every angle: place of birth only, place of enumeration, approximate age, profession (one word of the profession will do). To defeat the OCR I would suggest using only the things that have pull-down menus, if possible... no way the OCR can mess that up!

Best of luck!
Sarah