AIBU to ask how on earth you find someone on ancestry?

[DashhboardConfessionals]

I'm trying to find someone and I'm fairly certain he's alive. Am I right in thinking this makes it harder to find someone due to data protection?

He's a family member and I have limited information. I can find his marriage certificate and I believe he may have moved to Australia in the early 80s. He'd be early 70s now.

The name isn't particularly unusual either.. very similar to Robin Langdon for example .

So any tips anyone can give me? I'd be very grateful

mothers maiden name
area of birth?
date of birth

are you a paid member?

there doesn't seem to be any data protection on ancestry

@CannaBelieve I'm not a paid member but have been before. Happy to pay up again though so may do that.

Don't know his actual date of birth or his mothers maiden name. Know the city he was born in and where his parents lived, city wise

I can guess within a few years a rough date of birth. And I can pretty much guess a city of birth.

PM me OP, I have a full Ancestry subscription and happy to check for you.

but ancestry is historical data. Births, deaths, marriages. It is not like the phone book and won't have current details about where people are living.

@FoxyFoxyLoxy thank you! I shall attempt to do that

@FoxyFoxyLoxy think I've managed it! Thanks again

there are phone book entries with addresses though

Very difficult if they are still alive, Ancestry is good further back, you would do better searching voting registers but you need to know where they live or have lived recently.

If you think he’s in Australia contact a family history group there, they are usually most helpful, they found relatives in the US and NZ for me, they will know where to search locally.

I used to be on Ancestry.
They say that you need to be as specific as you can.
I found nothing.
My friend, who has done genealogy for a long time, told me to be less specific. ( There are many reasons for this, namely name changes , which were common after marriages until the early 70s.)

I followed her advice and found a brother. ( sadly died a year before I discovered him.)

Errors are common too, searching for my Great GFs origin I found his birth date was 10 yrs wrong on the census, got past that and 300yrs was unlocked.

@ButtockUp

I used to be on Ancestry. They say that you need to be as specific as you can. I found nothing. My friend, who has done genealogy for a long time, told me to be less specific. ( There are many reasons for this, namely name changes , which were common after marriages until the early 70s.)

I followed her advice and found a brother. ( sadly died a year before I discovered him.)

Being specific has never been the advice though. Especially when you get pre-20th century when spelling is not standardised. Compulsory education was only introduced in the mid 1800s, before that many people couldn't read or write so wouldn't have a clue how to spell their names. They pitch up at the church to marry or baptise a baby and tell the priest the name, and he writes what he hears.

One of the names on my maternal tree is McLaughlin. Or is it Maclaughlin, McLaughland, McLochlin, McLachlan or Macklacklan? Fuzzy searching is essential, using wildcards - searching for SM*TH will bring up Smith and Smyth. Also giving +/- 2 years for a birth date - babies born in the last week of December might appear in the records for the following year, people fib/misremember their ages etc etc etc.

If you’re in Scotland scotlandspeople.gov.uk is very, very good - again, better for historical info but it does show you if someone’s recently married, divorced, any children born under that surname in the area and when etc .