Missing families from the 1851 census .....

jimmymacfalkirk · Post by **jimmymacfalkirk** » Sat Mar 11, 2006 11:43 am

Hi,

I have 4 families missing from the 1851 census, Barnetson and Christian from Caithness, and 2 Cameron families from Ross & Cromarty/Inverness. I've tried the usual name variations with no luck, and I know the areas they were living.

I read in other posts that there are 13,000 images missing, but it seems that people are finding matches but seeing blank images for these 13,000. Can anyone confirm this ? I'd like to know if my 4 families are part of the 13,000 or if they were just AWOL when the census people were on the prowl. It did cross my mind that they might not have been as efficient in gathering all the information in those days.

Thanks for any advice.
Jim

Alison Plenderleith · Post by **Alison Plenderleith** » Sat Mar 11, 2006 12:17 pm

Hi Jim,

I have a family who were in Carnock, Fife in 1851. I know this for sure as I've seen them at NRH. However, they are not on SP. Even using wildcards and just searching for p*l* for Plenderleith.
I've sent a contact form to SP.

Regards,

Alison

Caroline · Post by **Caroline** » Sat Mar 11, 2006 2:53 pm

jimmymacfalkirk wrote: I read in other posts that there are 13,000 images missing, but it seems that people are finding matches but seeing blank images for these 13,000. Can anyone confirm this ?

Hi Jim,

I've found a few of my relatives on the 1851 census, but unfortunately there has been no images. What happens is that you find them when you do a search, you pay your one credit and then it comes up with "no image". I was annoyed because I lost so many credits this way , so I complained and got them refunded.

By the way have you tried searching for your Caithness relatives on FreeCen as they've got 85% of the 1851 on there.

Caroline

David Douglas · Post by **David Douglas** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 9:59 pm

Is it just me, or are others having such bad luck with the missing images? 50% of my successful searches on the 1851 census (i.e. those where I paid for the image or am prepared to pay for it), I'm getting a 'No image'.

Or is it just me who's unfortunate enough to be looking in such obscure, sparsely populated and remote places as Govan, Falkirk, Airdrie, and Kirkliston (West Lothian)!

pinkshoes · Post by **pinkshoes** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 10:37 pm

David I've had the same with Falkirk, Kilsyth and Lanarkshire. I'm getting all excited thinking I've nabbed them, only to find there's no image. I don't know which is worse, that or not finding them at all - you still don't know if they're there and part of the bunch that were too bad to include. Also, how much time and imagination do you expend before you give up - with a lot of help from Andrew P I found a bunch of Gallochers who turned out to be Gorrachers - you just can't insure against that

I've squandered a fair few groats, not found many of mine though

Pinkshoes

Lahb · Post by **Lahb** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 12:01 am

Mine were all in the Greenock area - out of the 5 John McLeans I wanted to see only 2 were available - the rest had no image. And I was hoping this would be the end to one of my

so quite disapointing but at least I didn't have to spend too much $$

Post by **joette** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 11:44 am

Or just not listed as per there on Freecen & living in Dalry but nothing there on SP.I suspect an indexing problem & am still awaiting a reply.

DavidWW · Post by **DavidWW** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 12:50 pm

Hmmmm............

While there are indeed 13,000 images that have been withdrawn from the 1851 census online at ScotlandsPeople due to unacceptably low quality, I don't know what proportion of those bad quality images were indexed.

All that I can say is some, at least, - I'll ask the obvious question.

In other words, if an expected hit doesn't happen, is that because the microfilm was of such low quality that it wasn't possible to extract the details and index them?, or because, for some reason, the person/family don't appear in the census under a recognisable surname?

David

David Douglas · Post by **David Douglas** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 9:30 pm

David, that's the odd thing - someone was evidently able to read the images, they're just not available for purchase. They are indexed, and correctly (I'm assuming) since I'm finding in the index the family members I'm expecting, with the ages I'm expecting, in the districts where I expected them to be.

You must have seen some of these original documents - what do you think the solution is? Would colour photos make them easily legible? Or infrared photography?

DavidWW · Post by **DavidWW** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 9:47 am

David Douglas wrote:David, that's the odd thing - someone was evidently able to read the images, they're just not available for purchase. They are indexed, and correctly (I'm assuming) since I'm finding in the index the family members I'm expecting, with the ages I'm expecting, in the districts where I expected them to be.

The difference is between being able to read the microfilm, and the digitised image made from the film being unreadable/

David Douglas wrote:You must have seen some of these original documents - what do you think the solution is? Would colour photos make them easily legible? Or infrared photography?

Colour images are one solution being looked at, but the timescale is uncertain.

David

TalkingScot.com

Missing families from the 1851 census .....

Missing families from the 1851 census .....

Re: Missing families from the 1851 census