Find Ancestors

Okay, I realise it's a bit difficult to explain! This process only works if you know the name of at least one person who is probably living in the same household. Going back to my fictional family: James McDonald is still a child in 1851, so he's probably living at home. You know his mother's name is Margaret. We'll assume that you know they're both living in Lanarkshire, but have no idea whereabouts. You run a search for anyone named James McDonald who's living in Lanarkshire, and giving the age range you think he falls into. As with any search on ScotlandsPeople, you'll be presented with a list of results; we'll say that in this case there are 30 results on that list. Print out the page(s) that list them. You now run a search for anyone named Margaret McDonald who's living in Lanarkshire, also giving an age range. As with the previous search, you're given a list of results; this time, there are 43 of them. Again, print out the page(s) that list them. If James and Margaret are living together, then they'll be in the same district listed in the census. Look at the district given for the first result listed for James. Now go through the list of results for Margaret. If the same district name doesn't occur under her name, then you can cross out that result on James's list, along with any others further down for the same district. Keep repeating this process for each result on James's list until you've got to the end of the listing; if a district is on both lists, then highlight the relevant results on both lists. When you've got to the end of James's list in the above process, anything that's not highlighted on Margaret's list can now be crossed out, since it's for a district that doesn't appear on his list. Hopefully you can see what we've just done. But we can do better still. If James and Margaret are living in the same household, then they're *probably* on the same page of the census. Each page of the Scottish census gets given a GROS Data reference, which is given for each result on the listings. Let's assume that the earlier exercise left us with results for both James and Margaret for three different districts. Start with a result from one of them. Look at the GROS Data reference, and then see if the results from the same district for the other person also have the same GROS Data reference. If they don't, you can cross the results out for both districts for both people; make sure that you do this in a different way than you did for the last process. If you do find a match, then mark it on both lists. Repeat this process until you've gone through both lists, making sure that there are no results left unmarked or uncrossed-out on either list. Once you've got to this stage, you will hopefully have a fairly short list of remaining results; these are the ones you should get the census images for, because these are the ones that give you the highest probability. If you've crossed all the results out on the lists, then pretend that the ones you crossed out in the second process are still there, and get the images for those. What the above two processes do is eliminate the less likely candidates. You have no way of knowing that little James McDonald won't in fact be staying with his cousin in Aberdeen, for instance, but it's more probable that he'll be at home with his mother, and those are the census images you want to find first. Hope this all made sense(!), and good luck.

Hi Andrew, I am just going to mull over your information again and try to see what you are doing here. It may take a few minutes, or hours as the case may be to sink in, then I will give it a try. Betty

No problem Betty :-)

Hi again Willow, Thanks very much on the information on the proper way to search Scotlands people, I know what to do now, this should cut down on a lot of lost credit with finding the wrong person. Many thanks Betty

I dont know, I just put the surname in and in first name/forename i put william a I hate spending money, always looking for shortcuts.

and for births if i just type in the surname and first name and first inital of the middle name, with no soundex on and any dates, areas etc I get 7 matches. 1872 HEPBURN WILLIAM ALEXAND M ANDERSTON GLASGOW CITY/LANARK 1877 HEPBURN WILLIAM ALEXAND M ST CLEMENT DUNDEE CITY/ANGUS 1891 HEPBURN WILLIAM ALLAN F M ALMAGHIE /KIRKCUDBRIGHT 1876 HEPBURN WILLIAM AMOS M LEITH SOUTH EDINBURGH CITY/MIDLOTHIAN 1860 HEPBURN WILLIAM ANDERSO M ARBROATH /ANGUS 1898 HEPBURN WILLIAM ANDREW M APPLEGARTH /DUMFRIES 1862 HEPBURN WILLIAMINA ARTH F POLMONT /STIRLING

Andrew, That is the way that I found a lot of my Skinner, Sutherland, Will and Caven families. Maureen

Hi again Willow, Yes thats him, why did mine come up with nothing then?? I entered his christian name and then part of his middle name, then surname, nothing came up. Betty

Hi Andew, No it doesn't make sense to me, I think I will have to read the a few times to understand it. What do you mean by the GRO numbers I don't quite follow that bit, do you mean the would be the same?? Betty

Ok, if I type in Hepburn as the surname and william as the first I get 164 matches with no areas selected. But if I type in Hepburn as the surname, william A as the first I only get 2 matches. is this him on the 1891? 1891 HEPBURN WILLIAM A M 14 ST NICHOLAS ABERDEEN CITY/ABERDEEN 168/01 052/01 018

Using the aforementioned details, you can use 'triangulation' to narrow down the possible families. So, for example [using fictional details]: James McDonald, born c. 1836 plus or minus five years, and living in Lanarkshire, might give you 30 possibilities for the 1851 census Margaret McDonald [his mother], born c. 1804 plus or minus five years, and living in Lanarkshire, might give you 43 possibilities On the face of it, this gives you up to 30 possibilities for the two together. So what you do is then tick off the GROS Data references for Margaret by comparing them with those for James. This should eliminate quite a number of them. Obviously this process is not foolproof, but it means that you're concentrating on the highest probabilities: a man is more likely to be living with his wife than not, and young children are more likely to be with their parents than not. Hope this made sense! Edited to add: By doing the above, you're spending credits on viewing search results, of course, but you're not having to spend further credits on all those 30 results for James McDonald. If 8 of the results are for districts that don't appear in the results for Margaret, then *probably* you can rule those out, and so you won't have to waste your money looking at the images. No guarantees, of course, but this seems the most efficient way of working.

Hi Willow, No that name I put on the board is not the correct one, just used that as an example. I was looking for William Alexander Hepburn aged 24 in Aberdeen in the 1901 census and aged 14 in the 1891. He was working as a jiner in the 1901. Betty

was he about 15 in 1891?

do you remember approx dob and area?

I was trying to help someone the other day on ScotlandsPeople, they said this person was in the 1891 census and 1901 census in Aberdeen but I can't find him in either of them because of the middle name problem.... Betty

well if i put campbell as the surname and alexander M as the first name, works ok for me.

Well, I'm sure you can't search on birthplace on Scotland's People, so knowing where somebody was born doesn't help with census searches unless they kindly stayed in the same place. It does seem to be set up assuming that people stayed in the same place all their lives! If they have a common name and you can't find them in their birth county, you end up with way too many to search through as far as I can remember. Kate.

bit expensive looking at all the images to track down the one you want. All mine are Campbells, a nightmare name, and the only way I find them is with their middle names and by using the method I said.

Hi Willow, The search on ScotlandsPeople doesn't work when you put in the first letter of the middle name, it just doesn't search for this one letter or even two or three letter in the middle name. Betty

I have rellies born in the 1820's that I can follow through all on the census - find their marriage - but no death records - so must still be alive and well. I was looking for McKill - soundex brings up names such as Maxwell. Maureen