STEP-BY-STEP: WHY AREN’T THEY IN THE UK CENSUS?
The census coverage is generally so good that it’s a shock when it lets you down. However, don't despair as logical searching can help you close in on elusive UK ancestors
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You might find that an ancestor who upped sticks and moved to another area is difficult to track down, but there are many clues that can help you find them. Start off by extracting all the details from their last appearance in the records. Look at age, profession, family relationships and any other available information.
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If your ancestor was employed in a profession that involved travel, such as the church or Merchant Navy, try a wide search without residence criteria. If this yields too many results, try adding a birthplace, or an age range. It’s worth checking possible death records in other areas, in case your relative died away from home.
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If there’s no obvious reason for a move, look for other family members. Your ancestors might have relocated on the promise of work with a relative, or to benefit from family support in old age. If a missing ancestor was born elsewhere, check whether they have moved back there in later life.
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A whole family move would have been a big upheaval. If there’s no sign of the family in their home county, it’s probably worth checking overseas censuses or passenger lists, particularly if the move came during a period of heavy emigration to a particular country. Many countries have their own online collection for you to search.
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The keyword feature on www.
ancestry.co.uk is useful for tracking down ancestors who have moved. It searches all transcribed data for a record. If you know an ancestor has a relative with a particular name, but you don’t know the exact relationship, enter the name in the keyword field to find all appearances.
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If logical searching comes to nothing, it’s time to look further afield. Look for lists of strays on local websites, and track down your own strays by searching with a combination of birthplace and first name. In the 1841 Census, try searching for those ‘not born in county’.