Genealogy Chat

That, Sarah, is a closely guarded secret! The records that Kew do not anticipate anyone wanting to look at are kept offsite. A friend of mine did discover that some pages were missing and was allowed to view the originals, but I can't imagine that happening once Ancestry has digitised all the images.

Brenda - What's the Cheshire saltmines???? Merry

Rita If you don't have access to Ancestry, how are you viewing the 1871 and 1891 censuses? Microform at a record office or library? On cd? If you could demonstrate that the pages are likely to exist but are neither on Ancestry nor the GRO films, then they can be ordered from the Cheshire saltmines and you can view them at the National Archives at Kew. Imagine that: the original books!

Bit long-winded, but you first need to use the National Archives Procat catalogue (www.catalogue.nationalarchives.gov.uk) to find the relevant piece numbers for the district. Then, on the Ancestry site, enter the piece number in the relevant box. Then enter each folio number in turn in the folio box and see if you get any hits - usually there are 40-50 names per folio. Usually the first couple of folios on a piece are empty as they contain the district description, etc. Other than that, there should be names on each folio number through to the end of the piece. There could be 100 folios or more on a piece, and several pieces in a district so it could take some time! If you find a folio number with no names, that could indicate a missing sheet, though you'd need to check the schedule numbers on the images on either side of the missing folio to see if there's a gap.

Maybe if you posted the 1881 census info you have for the families ''missing'' from 1871 and 1891, others could give more advice? Merry

Hi all - Has anyone else got any other words of advice as to how to track down relevant missing pages? Rita

Christine - The nudging was very kind of you. Brenda - I don't have access to Ancestry so don't know where to go from here. Thanks anyway. Rita

Besides missing books, occasionally there are individual pages not filmed. You can physically check the folio numbers, to ensure all the pages are there. The films (and presumably the cds) have the statistic pages which describe the districts covered and show the total numbers of males and females etc, which can be used as a cross check. I assume this information, which is really helpful, is on Ancestry somewhere, but I don't know where it is hidden.

Re: Missing census pages. I think I saw something recently regarding missing census pages and how to find which ones for which areas were missing. I cannot find the thread. Because branches of my family are missing from the 1871 and the 1891 censuses and they all lived within a house or street or two of each other, I am wondering whether the relevant census pages are on the missing list. Could anyone enlighten me, please. Thanks Rita

See below. Rita