Peter I have found that www.ancestry.co.uk , whilst a very useful site, has quite a lot of errors in transcription so the person's name may have been entered differently. If it was an unusual first name you could try searching just by that. Or the census enumerator may have written the name with a different spelling. Or the person may have been known for a time by a different name for whatever reason (I had a couple of relatives who swopped there first and middle names around, and another who used a middle name as a surname for a while). I assume you have done a check for your person in the returns for the whole of the country. What was his occupation in 1851 census? What was his father/siblings occupations in 1841 and 1851 censuses and are they easily found in the later censuses? What makes you consider the navy - did he live anywhere near the coast and if so have you checked the on-line naval records yet. Otherwise you could try army records. Good luck laurel Sayer surrey -----Original Message----- From: Peter Appleton [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday 18 January 2006 17:44 To: [email protected] Subject: Missing from censuses 1861 and 1871 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 ______________________________