Genealogy Chat

It's best to search from one census to the next using the youngest child or the one with the least common name.

Quite right Potty.
Having spent best part of 20 years searching for my 3xg grandfather Walter How from Northumberland I decided he must have died pre 1841.
I was quite surprised, to say the least to find him transcribed as Wattie Haw, alive & kicking, with my 3xg grandmother in Greenwich in 1851.
Just shows, you should never say die.

Agreed, wisechild! but it does make it more interesting. It would be very boring if everything was easy to find and there were no Eureka! moments.

Perhaps if some of the mistranscriptions weren´t so awful, we wouldn´t need tips like these.
As you say, most of the more experienced researchers have got all the tips off to a fine art.
Having said that, there are some which still defeat me & lateral thinking doesn´t always help.

Been doing that for years; also use Reggie's tip - with a surname misspelt on nearly every census I would never have found anyone otherwise!

Based on experience, I would say that the regular helpers on these boards certainly would....................but, no doubt there are many other people using these boards who would not have done so

Also..........use forename and birth info only

Ancestry have just announced a series of research tips to help locating ancestors.
The one which impressed me most was -:
If you can´t find the person you are looking for on the census, try looking for another member of the same family, such as a parent or sibling. :-0 :-0 :-0
Now who would have thought of that?