christopher_n_lewis
14-05-2005, 11:13 AM
Hi
I'm thinking about buying the "complete" London Census indexes for 1861, 1871, and 1891 from S&N. I already subscribe to Ancestry and am trying to decide how much I will gain - i.e. will I be able to find the more difficult people in S&N who don't show up in Ancestry?
In the past S&N have made a of point of saying that their indexes were compiled by local family historians, so were more accurate. I asked if this was still the case now they have accelerated the indexing and got the answer that "We have used local volunteers to check the oversees transcriptions, so that we could finish the indexes more quickly."
Can anyone comment on the accuracy of the indexes?
I've used the S&N partial indexes, which are a bit clumsy since they are just one big PDF, and the surnames are not in uppercase. This is a particular problem since one of the surnames I'm interested in is LEONARD and variants, but of course I find lots of peope with that as a forename. S&N say these complete indexes come with an improved search program.
Can anyone comment on the new search program that comes with the "complete" indexes?
I know other threads have comment at length about indexes vs. transcriptions vs. originals. I used to go to the FRC which is a 2 hour journey each way, so images on CD and on-line are of great help to me. I use all the tricks and suggestions to narrow down the area to search, but the recent national indexes have helped me tremendously. How else to find someone who died in Hampstead Workhouse, London, was born in Deddington, Oxfordshire, but was in Devon in 1861 (but not in 1851 as far as I can tell, :( )
Christopher
I'm thinking about buying the "complete" London Census indexes for 1861, 1871, and 1891 from S&N. I already subscribe to Ancestry and am trying to decide how much I will gain - i.e. will I be able to find the more difficult people in S&N who don't show up in Ancestry?
In the past S&N have made a of point of saying that their indexes were compiled by local family historians, so were more accurate. I asked if this was still the case now they have accelerated the indexing and got the answer that "We have used local volunteers to check the oversees transcriptions, so that we could finish the indexes more quickly."
Can anyone comment on the accuracy of the indexes?
I've used the S&N partial indexes, which are a bit clumsy since they are just one big PDF, and the surnames are not in uppercase. This is a particular problem since one of the surnames I'm interested in is LEONARD and variants, but of course I find lots of peope with that as a forename. S&N say these complete indexes come with an improved search program.
Can anyone comment on the new search program that comes with the "complete" indexes?
I know other threads have comment at length about indexes vs. transcriptions vs. originals. I used to go to the FRC which is a 2 hour journey each way, so images on CD and on-line are of great help to me. I use all the tricks and suggestions to narrow down the area to search, but the recent national indexes have helped me tremendously. How else to find someone who died in Hampstead Workhouse, London, was born in Deddington, Oxfordshire, but was in Devon in 1861 (but not in 1851 as far as I can tell, :( )
Christopher