Genealogy Chat

Hi, I've just installed this, and I thought you just put in a name and hey presto all the names in that household came up....not so. Is there anyone out there who can give me the idiots guide on how to do this Please!!!!!! Gail.

Hi Gail Basically you use the decoder to look through the pro 1901 census rather than the pro site. You need to go to person search, enter sufficient data to get your result, but little enough to get a general search e.g. Worthington, Male, keyword Staff* (for variations of Staffordshire), once the result comes up click on "process search", then go to the next page (if there is one) and repeat until all pages have been processed. You can then repeat for Females for example, and make sure you process search after each page. Once you have done that, and have done all the people you need, click on "show results" and you will get them up in a spreadsheet. You can manipulate the data further by sorting there, but I prefer to save as an excel file, and then, open it up in excel. Whichever way, you can sort by page id (households) and person ID (the order they come on the census). I use colour in excel to highlight family groups to make them easy to look at. Bear in mind the page id and person ID will change after each session - so you cannot compare the numbers from one session with the numbers from a session you did say yesterday.. Also there is help text on the decoder web site. If this doesn't make sense, send me a message direct, and I'll send you some examples to show you what I mean Regards Maxine

Thanks for that Maxine I'll give it a go. Gail

Hi Maxine, Sorry I got carried away after reading your instructions, couldn't stop looking names up. I was putting in the christian name as well, not just the surname. Easy when you know how eh.....thanks very much for your help, it was really appreciated. Regards Gail.

Hi, I am truely thick!!! I cant do it! I have installed the decoder and every time I press process search I get nothing was found on this page etc.... and the search results button is not highlighted to work. The help button only shows "about" Any help for my fickle head would be so much appreciated. Just thinking about it do you have to open an account first? Mystified, Jo

jo you search the actual census and when you find peoples' records you want to keep you click to process the search then it keeps the results in the search results box .. or was this what you were doing? A

Hi Ann, hope you are still there! Lost my connection as I sent a reply and lost it. I have been putting in the surname and the area and pressed search at the bottom of the screen. I have the results up and have pressed process search at the top and ....... I couldnt remember what came up and just done it again and I got Results......!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hope I am doing it right or I think I will be having another late night. Thanks for your help. Jo

Ohhh, and now it doesn't!!!! Jo

what I am doing is putting, Blackburn in for surname, male for gender, Durham for place keywords and then pressing search at the bottom. When the results come up I have pressed process search and the message comes up...nothing on this page are you sure you are on the PRO search results page? Don't know am I? I am doing it from the decoder 1901....... Jo

Don't forget to save the results before closing the program. Martin

Jo Have sent you an email ... Ann X

Yes and you help me the other day max and the results were very impressive. Thank You again