Hint searching the 1911 census INDEX

[MaryA]

There's a spreadsheet list of areas throughout the country which if you pm me your email address I'll send you a copy. Works with Microsoft Excel.

What you need to do is find a likely candidate and note where they are living and find the reference on the spreadsheet, now for West Derby for example the beginning would be RD455, but Liverpool would be RD453, Toxteth Park RD454 and so on. Once you have searched with this bit of the reference and the name and it still shows up you add the next bit of the reference, which is SD1, 2 or 3 for Liverpool, again these are listed on the spreadsheet.

When you have narrowed that down and still come up with your man the longer winded part comes - the ED number and that can go up to the 60's but eventually you will find the right number when your man comes up in the list.

At that point remove the name from the main search box and put it in the "Other Members of the household" boxes and the resulting list of names will hopefully be those he is living with.

The difficulty arises with a common name such as Smith or even where there are families with the same name living quite close to each other and so have the same reference number but it works quite often, just takes a bit of effort.

[Tina]

Hi Mary
I found one yesterday because he had an unusual surname.
It had Mr before his first name so listing as William didn't show.

Tina