Family missing from Census

[PinkFuschia]

I've just started delving into my family history. Have found one set of Great-great Grandparents and children on the 1881 Census and a couple of the children on the 1901 Census, but no trace of any of them on the 1891 Census.

A friend suggested that they may have been on holiday and therefore registered in a different part of the country, but they are not to be found anywhere.

The fact that my great-grandmother and one of her sisters are on the 1901 Census obviously means that there were, at least, two of them still alive in 1891.

Anyone got any ideas where to look next?

There could be a transcription error, which means your ancestor is not listed correctly in the index. Have you tried entering the names of each member of the household in separate searches? One of them may come up, which will lead you to the whole family.

Alternatively, try a wider search on age range. perhaps the enumerator entered your ancestors' ages wrongly, so they don'y show up when you search in a narrow age band.

Try removing all variables from the search (i.e. enter only the name) and trawl through what comes up (unless it's thousands of names!).

If you let me know details of the family's names and ages, I'll try finding them for you.

try entering the first name only and all the other information - then search through those people to see if the second name has been mistranscribed. Or search on another census website as they may have a different transcription.

it took me 3 years to find one family as the j was transrcibed as an L and the w as a v and the o as an a and the e as an s all in one persons name...!

Ive got this problem too and would assume as farmers they werent all on holiday on that day!

My understanding is that some records got lost, some were damaged (water/fire) so they are missing off these too.

With names like jones/morgan/williams its a nightmare.

I can't find my grandad, he was Welsh and I think there is a problem with the Welsh census

Monmouthshire??? - particulary the reg district of Chepstow. Also 1911 cant trace the family again.

Yes 1911, not that far away in Abergavenny or Newport,although my grandmother was born in Monmouth but she wasn't alive for 1911 cencus. My grandad was born in 1909 so he should be there and his Christian name is not that common, but can't trace him.

I'm doing my the OH, he is Shirenewton & Trellech. Luckily the otherday I noticed on a death certificate of a wife that he was known by his middle name so I did find the missing link.

I am struggling on the otherside who were Jones - Shirenewton again but nothing found.

I am looking for Jones and Evans, Bacon, I don't stand a chance
Though my mum just told me my Grandad lived in The Mardy which may help us a bit.

There is another complication with mine as my Grandad was bought up thinking his grandparents were actually his parents. He was the illigitimate son of who he thought was his sister, but was actually his mother.

When this happens to me they are generally there but with their surname hideously mangled by the enumerator or by the transcriber or, on occasion, by both. And sometimes they are easier to find on one site than another.

Would you be prepared to share the names/occupations/dates of birth so we can have a dig around for you? Sometimes it just takes someone else to try a different combination of search terms from the ones you have already tried.

I have just found the registry of my Nan and Grandad's births on Ancestry.com

Sorry for the obvious, but have you tried an address search?

Nothing really to add to what others have said, but it took me years to find my great grandad on the 1881 census. He had a relatively unusual name, which made this more surprising.

I eventually found him because one of his cousins was in the household on census night. The family had been indexed under a completely random surname which had no relevance whatsoever to their real names. And they were in Leeds, which was also completely random.

As herd says, they are generally there somewhere.

D