I have had quite a bit of success in finding people in the census on Ancestry by leaving the surname blank, when I have known the birthplace and approximate year of birth of one of the family. It is best to search for family member with the least common first name. Some of the surnames that have come up as a result have had the most unusual spellings that I would never have thought of searching for. I believe that Ancestry have the 1841 census well under way, so hopefully it will not be too long before they have it on-line. Regards Celia

I have also found that using first names or parts of first names with county etc seems to find a lot of the ones I am interested in. It also enable me to supply corrections to surnames to help update and provide a better index. Peter At 12:09 06/12/2005, you wrote: >I have had quite a bit of success in finding people in the census on >Ancestry by leaving the surname blank, when I have known the birthplace and >approximate year of birth of one of the family. It is best to search >for family >member with the least common first name. Some of the surnames >that have come up as >a result have had the most unusual spellings that I would never have thought >of searching for. I believe that Ancestry have the 1841 census well under >way, so hopefully it will not be too long before they have it on-line. > >Regards Celia