Finding Married Female Relatives in Census Indexes

[Geneo]

Try this out to find whom your female ancestors may have married.. You need to know their birth date and place as accurately as possible and their marriage will need to have occurred post 1837. For the 1881 Census Index it is applicable to persons born from about 1820 to around 1865.

The first one I tried is probably a good example to use as a demonstration. I had found a Harriet Harrison, on the 1851 Census, aged 8 and born in Biddulph, Staffs. I carried out the search as follows using the 1881 Midlands West Counties disk:

Individual:
Given Name .…Harriet
Last Name ...... Blank

Birth Year:
Year ............... 1843
Year Range … + or - 1

Birth Place:
County ......…. Stafford England
City/Town …... Biddulph

Census Place:
Region .....….. Midlands West
County ...….... All
City/Town …... Blank

This search came up with the following possibilities:

Harriet Goodwin (bn 1843) with husband Richard in Brown Edge
Harriet Nixon (bn 1844) with husband Joseph in Shelton, Stoke on Trent
Harriett Williams (bn 1843) with husband John at Prees, Shropshire (discounted as a probable sister-in-law named Bowers was in the house)

The target year and the Year Range can be varied to expand or reduce the scope of the search.

I then searched the GRO marriage index for Harriet Harrison and checked each one for a cross-reference to either Joseph Nixon or Richard Goodwin. You obviously need to take a guess for when they married, either based on the age of children with them, or on age. After only a short search, I found that she cross-referenced with Joseph Nixon in the December Quarter of 1860 in the Registration District of Congleton, which includes Biddulph. She would have been 17 years old.

Using this approach with disk:

Individual:
Given Name .…Harriet
Last Name ...... Blank

Birth Year:
Year ............... 1843
Year Range … + or - 1

Birth Place:
County ......…. Stafford England
City/Town …... Biddulph

Census Place:
Region .....….. Midlands West
County ...….... All
City/Town …... Blank

This search came up with the following possibilities:

Harriet Goodwin (bn 1843) with husband Richard in Brown Edge
Harriet Nixon (bn 1844) with husband Joseph in Shelton, Stoke on Trent
Harriett Williams (bn 1843) with husband John at Prees, Shropshire (discounted as a probable sister-in-law named Bowers was in the house)

The target year and the Year Range can be varied to expand or reduce the scope of the search.

I then searched the GRO marriage index for Harriet Harrison and checked each one for a cross-reference to either Joseph Nixon or Richard Goodwin. You obviously need to take a guess for when they married, either based on the age of children with them, or on age. After only a short search, I found that she cross-referenced with Joseph Nixon in the December Quarter of 1860 in the Registration District of Congleton, which includes Biddulph. She would have been 17 years old.

Using this approach with the 1881 Census Index has opened up quite a few avenues of research for me which I would not otherwise have found.

John Dixon

[get2BJ]

Well done John, don't you just love it when a plan comes together... !!!



Brenda

[Geneo]

Thank you Brenda for your comment.

This is my first post on this site. Does anyone know why sections of the text are duplicated. Am I doing something wrong?

John

[get2BJ]

Hi again John,

Welcome to the site. No, you are not doing anything wrong, the repeating text problem happens quite often if the text you submit is too long or too tabulated. Try posting smaller messages over two or more pages - simply submit part of the message and then post the rest by pressing 'reply' again and carrying on. You'll soon be able to judge how much is too much for the text editing software to manage.

Best wishes

Brenda