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