Hi everyone, I have a side-shoot individual who appears in 1851 census as an 18 year old single male and then is heard of no more until 1881 census when he re-appears married and with family. I'm trying to identify possible avenues for research to fill in the big gap in his life. My starting point is to understand possible reasons for his absence from two consecutive censuses. Is there a list member who can give me answers to any of the following questions? (N.B. The time period in question is from 1850-1880) If an individual was serving abroad in the army, would he appear in the UK census? If an individual was in the Royal Navy and was aboard ship, would he appear in the UK census? If an individual was a merchant seaman aboard ship, would he appear in the UK census? In the case of the two naval questions: Would it make any difference if his ship was in a UK port, in transit at sea or in an overseas port? Apart from army/navy service, is there any other reason that fellow listers can think of as to why an individual would be missing from two consecutive censuses? Do the Ancestry.co.uk census indexes include all land-based institutions (e.g. prisons, army barracks, naval shore establishments, etc.)? regards, Peter Appleton Researching the following surnames: Yorkshire (North Riding): APPLETON, BOWERS, COCKERILL, EVANS, FAWCETT, LEGG/LEGGE, MASON Norfolk: BOWERS, BRUNDLE, CALVER/CARVER, MULLENGER/MULLINGER, WOODS Cornwall: ANNEAR Lincolnshire: HOWSAM Suffolk: MATTHEWS Westmorland: MASON My Family Tree website: http:/www.tribalpages.com/tribes/pappleton3

HI Peter, The 1851 census was the first census to record mariners who were on board ships in British Ports on census night, but did not include those at sea. The 1861 census included not only those mariners, Merchant and Royal Navy and fishermen, that were in British Ports but also those that were at sea. The 1861 census is the only one that seems to have a large number of schedules for Vessels indexed on line at the Ancestry site and presumbly elsewhere, I don't know. If you use Ancestry try searching for the man's name and instead of putting in a place of abode or county, try putting in the word Vessels into the Keyword box, and see what turns up. I have done this method of searching before now and have had success. You can also look at an A to Z listing of ship names, merchant vessels, that are included int he 1861 at Ancestry by going to the search page for the 1861 and then scrolling down to the bottom where you can see a list of county names. In amongst that listing you will see something like "Misc. Ships at sea and abroad" and also and "Royal Navy". Clicking on the first of these links will take you to another page where you need to click on the word Vessels, this takes you to the A to Z list of merchant vessel names with beside each name a link "View Enumeration District. This link for the Enumeration District will show you the first page of the ships schedule, it gives the ships tonnage, her trade, her home port, where and when the schedule was handed to her master and, best of all, her position at midnight on census night, compass readings included at times. The second page of the schedule is that given under the ships name in the A to Z listing. you should print out both pages to get the full schedule for a given vessel. In the later census you occassionally find a Vessel but I have not had such success with these census and ships enumerated in them as I have with the 1861. Failing having access to Ancestry the LDS have an alphabetical index to the men on those ships at sea in the 1861 census, the index is on about 9 fiche I have been told. There is also a similar index for the names of the ships themselves that were at sea in the 1861. With the reference from the index you can order the relevant LDS film to view the same schedules as I descrbe above. To answer another part of your question I don't believe that a soldier serving abroad would appear in the English census, whereas a soldier in a barracks in England does, I have found one of mine in the 1871, 1881 and 1891 each time in the barracks in England. I have one ancestor who is missing in alternate censuses, heaven only knows what he was up to but myself and my cousin have searched in all manner of ways to find him, I have searched the ancestry site for him and my cousin has search the 1891 on CD for the relevant county for the man and his wife and family but he just does not appear. There are pages of the census missing in various census for various areas, at the Ancestry site go to any one of the census search page and scroll down below the list of counties included in that census and you should see a listing of the piece numbers that are missing. Institutions such as prisons are included in the census, though which was the first census to include prisons I am not sure. Having said that, I have an index which includes Northallerton Gaol in the1851 census, prisoners as well as prison officers and their families. So maybe Prisons were included from the 1851 onwards, if not in the 1841. Hope this is of some help to you. Regards Jenny DeAngelis. Spain. > > If an individual was serving abroad in the army, would he appear in the UK > census? > If an individual was in the Royal Navy and was aboard ship, would he > appear > in the UK census? > If an individual was a merchant seaman aboard ship, would he appear in the > UK census? > In the case of the two naval questions: > Would it make any difference if his ship was in a UK port, in transit at > sea > or in an overseas port? > Apart from army/navy service, is there any other reason that fellow > listers > can think of as to why an individual would be missing from two consecutive > censuses?

Hi folks, Just a note of thanks to Laurel, Jo, Diane and Jenny for their replies to my posting on the above subject. To Laurel, thanks for reminding me about the problems of poor transcriptions in the online databases. To Jo and Diane especially, thanks for offering two fresh pairs of eyes. That's a very generous offer which, if you don't mind, I'll park for the moment. I've been trying to come at my problem from a totally different direction and, whilst I still haven't found him in 1861 or 1871, I have amassed a lot of info about his various relatives (antecedents and descendents). I need to analyse this to see just what it is that I have really learned. I also need to visit Teesside Archives to check out some PR entries. I may be back to you to take up your offer. To Jenny, thanks for your comprehensive explanation about ships and institutions in the censuses. Lots of useful background info there that will, undoubtedly, come in handy in the future. regards, Peter Appleton My Family Tree website: http:/www.tribalpages.com/tribes/pappleton3