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Archiver > DUMFRIES-GALLOWAY > 2002-09 > 1031969726


From: Mary Richardson <>
Subject: Re: [D-G LIST] 1851 census
Date: Fri, 13 Sep 2002 22:16:36 -0400
References: <F61EVu1levAqn0tv0gf0001957f@hotmail.com>


Shirley Olsen wrote:

> Hi Listers,
> I am surely computer illiterate, but I'm stumped! I have been
> exploring the 1851 census index and was quite thrilled to find it.
> However, I've understood from other mailings that one could pull up an
> entire household from it. I can't figure out how to do that. I was in
> search of Murrays (Margaret) and found there were 1583 of them I
> think. I finally looked through that many to find my household.
> According to Mary R. if I entered the surname of the person listed as
> head of the household, who was John, I should have gotten all the
> household. I didn't. I need to do more work there and would very much
> like not to go through so many names! What can I be doing wrong? I
> tried both the general surname search and the advanced. The advanced
> search always told me there were none--though I knew there were--LIKE
> 1500+!. Am I making any sense? Does anyone have any advice for a dunce?


First search on Surname "Murray" plus Forename "John." You will get 131
hits. (If you're sure his name was Murray and not McMurray, choose
"exact match" for the surname to reduce your options to 120.) In this
list of 120, try to find the household number for the John that you're
looking for -- no easy task I'm sure if you don't know much about your
John. Assuming you can zero in on a household number, write it down.
Now put "John Murray" in the Quick Search field. You will get 191
hits. You'll have to go through each one and check for a match on the
correct household number. You can speed it up a bit by searching for
the household number (usually Ctrl + F but could be Alt + E + F) on each
page.

Sorry -- I haven't found an easier way to do this. When you're dealing
with a relatively common name, you're gonna have to weed through a bunch
of pages. I've sent a request (plus a thanks!) to CIS to make household
searches easier. In the meantime, I hope this helps.

Mary Richardson

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