Genealogy Chat

Hi, I recently found a missing ancestor who had been indexed as Cratchley instead of Scratchley in the Marriage indexes on Ancestry. Regards Jo

If I cannot find who I am looking for I usually try all kinds of combinations of searches - like just first name and place of birth and year, or just last name etc. If that brings up nothing I usually try locating another member of the family and running through my combinations again. I've had so many mistranscribed ancestors and I always try to remember to submit a correction where necessary. I also do this on FreeBMD too where there is an error on a reference number or name spelling or sometimes even district. It is always worth submitting a correction as it will help whoever else is looking for the same person!

I often find people this way and when I find them I make sure I put in a correction so I can find them again if I need to.

Kate I found my Pitt family transcribed as Pill/Pille on more than one census so it pays to be imaginative. Pat

I find that sometimes searching for a first name, year of birth +/- 2, a parents name and the county of birth can produce interesting results. Sometimes it takes a few trys of different combinations before it works but knowing how many of my ancestors were mis-transcribed I've found that just because I don't find them where I expect, doesn't mean they're not there!

Hi Karen Yes, I looked it up on Ancestry - actually I had to go by place of birth alone. I tried the National Archives site, but I couldn't find her or her sister on there and I've put every version of the name in that I can think of. Confusing thing is, both the sisters turn up on Ancestry (just translated wrongly) but not on the National Archives one. I find Ancestry more useful for searching this way - don't know if anyone else does.

Hi Kate. Where did you do this, on Ancestry? And did you literally just type in a Christian name & date of birth, or any other info?

I've just finally found a missing ancestor in 1901 by typing in her first name and place of birth. Turns out she was transcribed as 'Barnell' instead of 'Barnett' because somebody must have forgotten to cross the 'tt'. Don't know if it's any help to anyone but might be a possibility for those relatives that you just can't find.