I hope you find this innovative and helpful.
You may have found families in the 1881 census and want to follow them through to the 1901
census.
If they are male then you may want to know if they married and who they married and what
was their maiden name. Did they have a family as well?
If they were female, you will want to know who they married.
You could spend a fortune looking for potential 'matches' in the 1901 census.
By enquiring on Free BDM (
http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/), you may be fortunate enough to
identify a probable marriage. Many marriages are there now, but not all yet, so you need
some luck here. By clicking on the number in the Vol Page column, you can see the whole
page details from the registration book. This shows, usually, two males and two females,
hence you have two possible partners.
Then go to the 1901 census. Try to find the person you have found in the 1881 census first
- you should be able to refine that search by age. You will know this from 1881. Of Course
if they were female they will have changed their name, so you will have to use both names
from the registartion book. Depending on the name you may be able to deduce which is the
right name, but if it is a common name, then less apparent. Copy the 1901 response details
including the image icon into a spreadsheet - I used excel. I suggest you do this as two
separate searches using data for one name and if not successful repeat this whole exercise
for the other name.
Then undertake a name search of the potential partner in 1901 if you get 'too
large' responses. You may have to refine by age or do some guesswork here. Copy this
detail into the spreadsheet as well.
Then undertake a 'sort' on the census address column. (You must highlight all the
data you have extracted - I use full columns) If you are fortunate enough to get a match
(I have been successful on several occasions), then you can verify that you have hit upon
the right couple by using the hover technique. Excel retains the path which the 1901
census uses to retrieve images. When you hover over the image icon, which you extracted,
the path comes to screen. Use the number element at the end of this line usually 6 or 7
numbers (Can be less for London). If you get the same number you have found the couple
that you are looking for.
Then you can spend your 75p to get an image print of the page or use this number to
convert to the folio number (
http://www.steeljam.co.uk/1901census/1901.html) and go to the
fiche at your local library to obtain the data for yourself
I have had successes & failures. Be warned it can be time consuming as well
good luck with this
John Jenkins
Hampshire