Jennifer (<jtinnion>) wrote: >I wonder if anyone has the 1861 or 1871 census index for >Whitehaven and could do me a lookup, please. I am >trying to find my husband's 2x great grandparents, >Robert and Isabella Cooper. A son, William, was >born in 1856 and they were living at 73 George Street then. Sorry that you haven't had any replies to this. I guess it may be that the task could turn out to be quite a difficult one. Though it is possible to get some transcripts or/and indexes for the 1841, 1861 and 1871 Census, you can't as a general rule of thumb (yet). Maybe people could post details of anything for the area that is available - on or off line. I don't know what the situation is for Whitehaven, but your request probably will entail someone looking at the actual Census returns, rather than at any index - and in a largish town like Whitehaven that can be very time-consuming (if George Street turns out not to be the right address). If you don't get any offer to do the lookup, a solution (assuming that you are able to visit an LDS, which may not be an option for you) is to order the film at your local LDS. The Whitehaven 1861 Census (unlike the 1871) is all on one LDS film - 0543211 - so it would be quite easy to order and use. There can be very big advantages to doing the research yourself, rather than relying on a lookup. It gives you an idea of what the neighbourhood is like. Quite often you spot a relative or a familiar name elsewhere in the street. And after searching for two hours through illegible handwriting, on a bad quality microfilm, on a nasty little machine that's not much bigger than your head (that's unfair to the LDS, who have good quality machines - I had a momentary flit to the London Family History Centre, where I'll probably be tomorrow), you do get a great sense of achievement! Of course, probably someone will now post to say that 1871 Whitehaven is all transcribed and available .... oh well! Chris chris@dickinson.uk.net