Webinars at the National Archives UK

If you're looking to brush up on genealogy research in the United Kingdom you can view webinars produced by the National Archives on their website. They even have a Family History category.

http://media.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

I recently watched the webinar "Missing from the Census?" live and learned some interesting facts about UK censuses:

• Your ancestor may have only been listed by initials if they lived in a boarding house, detention house, prison or asylum
• Information on birthplace can vary widely - from street address to county to sea coordinates if born at sea
• Towns with populations of 40K or more have street indexes that can be found at in the National Archives Historical Streets Project

If you think your ancestor may be completely missing from the census, consider that:

• the 1861 census is considered the worst for missing bits, about 5% is missing
• there was about 7% non-participation in the early years of civil registration
• some suffragettes are missing from the 1911 census as they were out protesting
• your ancestor may have hiding in the cellar from the enumerator because they thought it was the rent man calling

Lastly, if you're shocked at your great-grandmother being described as a prostitute at the age of 64, it may have been an error. One enumerator, a Mr.Hunt, wrote down what he thought was the truth, and given his apparently misogynistic attitude he described several women as prostitutes when in fact they were not.

The UK censuses 1841-1891 can be searched for free at http://www.freecen.org.uk/

Joy