Missing MacKenzie in 1871 and 1881 .....

Caroline · Post by **Caroline** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 11:21 am

Hi everyone,

For years now I've been trying to pinpoint one of my relatives, Benjamin MacKenzie, in the 1871 and 1881 censuses but I've had no success.

He was born in Wick,Caithness about 1845, then married Jessie Campbell in 1869 in Newcastle. They had their first child in Glasgow in 1874 then Jessie appears in 1881 in Poplar, London with their two children, but still no sign of Benjamin. In 1891 they're back in Newcastle.

I've tried all kinds of spelling variations,but no luck. So could someone have a quick look just in case I'm missing something obvious

Incidentally Benjamin was a boilermaker.

Caroline

Post by **SarahND** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 4:00 pm

Hi Caroline,

I can't even find them in the years you said you DID find them

What in the world are they indexed under? Was Jessie born in Newcastle? When? What are the children's names and dates of birth? Just trying to think of all the variables one could search on

k
All the best,
Sarah

Caroline · Post by **Caroline** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 7:58 pm

Hi Sarah,

Thanks for taking the time to look.

This is the family(minus Benjamin) in 1881:

Jessie MC KENZIE Wife (Head) M Female 30 Scotland Charwoman
Benjamin MC KENZIE Son Male 5 Poplar, Middlesex, England Scholar
Christina MC KENZIE Daur Female 2 Poplar, Middlesex, England

Dwelling 13 Bloomsbury Street
Census Place London, Middlesex, England

Jessie was born in Glasgow as was their eldest child who died in 1879.

Don't know if this will help any!

Caroline

Post by **SarahND** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 8:23 pm

Finally found them in 1881! Had to put "London" as the county instead of "Middlesex"

But they are still not visible if the last name is put in, even if it is entered exactly as it is in the record, with a space between mc and kenzie. Something is amiss with Ancestry's search, since they are there in the index, spelled correctly, but will not come up in a search under anything but Jessie, no surname, born 1851 Scotland. Then and only then, do I get a result

Okay, now I'll try the others...
Regards,
Sarah

Later... Got them now in 1891 with a similar problem. No kind of McKenzie will find them, only a search for Kenzie, since the Mc is on the line with the first name in the index

Now I have finally replicated what you have already found, I can try to look for the ones you asked for! But I must say, I'm not having much luck today!

Post by **emanday** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 11:17 pm

Looks like Ancestry's OCR Madness has struck again

Post by **SarahND** » Wed Apr 04, 2007 12:38 am

Hi again,
Is this Jessie in 1861? It would make sense since she named her daughter Christina. Just trying to get a birthplace on her to help searching. I know you said Glasgow, but can't find her with that birthplace.

As you may have gathered, I'm getting nowhere with this

and Ancestry has slowed to a crawl also-- not sure why-- so I think I'll give up for the moment!

1861
West Bridgend, Cardross, Dumbartonshire
Christina Campbell, 39, head, born Kirriemuir, Invernessshire
Eliza Campbell, 18, daughter, born William, Fort, Domestic servant
Jessie Campbell, 10, daughter, born Dumbadock, Parish Lands of, Scholar
James Campbell, 8, son, born Dumbadock, Parish Lands of, Scholar
Agnes Campbell, 5, daughter, born Dumbadock, Parish Lands of, Scholar
Christine Campbell, 3, daughter, born Dumbadock, Parish Lands of

If anyone else wants to try their hand at this, step right up! Don't be shy!
Regards,
Sarah

Edit later: Never mind, I can find loads of Jessies born in Glasgow suddenly... I really think Ancestry has it in for me today (probably took a peek at the OCR Madness topic and has blocked my computer from the site

)

Caroline · Post by **Caroline** » Wed Apr 04, 2007 1:38 pm

Hi Sarah,

Just in case you haven't given up yet........

Jessie was living in Glasgow in 1861 at 126, Piccadilly Street with her father Robert (59) and mother Eliza (57). She was aged 14 on this census.

Caroline

Post by **emanday** » Wed Apr 04, 2007 2:34 pm

I've just searched for someone in the discussion on the OCR Madness post. I had her name, parish and even the census page number. Got nothing that matched her.

I removed her name - and there she was! I think this is a similar problem to one you mentioned in another post, Sarah? At that time, I didn't get that problem, but now there it is happening!

Methinks there is an intermittent glitch with their search engine, either that or someone has botched up their database!

Between that and the transcription errors, I'm beginning to wonder if it is much use right now

Post by **SarahND** » Wed Apr 04, 2007 2:46 pm

Hi Mary,
I just replied to your post on the other thread

I noticed one other thing that had escaped me also, when trying to find Mary Fraser... There is no "next page" link to click, unless I am just not seeing it. What happens if you have a family spilling over to the next page and you can't just go to that page and look?

You can search for page number, but not E.D., so it is a long process.
Regards,
Sarah

Post by **emanday** » Wed Apr 04, 2007 3:04 pm

I've just done the search again including the name after seeing that JustJean had got it to work, and it did work this time!

You can search for page number, but not E.D., so it is a long process

Have you tried using Parish and page number?

P.S. I've emailed them - again!