I'm really stuck with this one. I can't find my Alexander Kellas, or his wife Ann, on the 1901 census at all. I have tried all the possibles, and even some older and younger, but have come up with nothing!
Here's what I know,
ALEXANDER KELLAS born 1872 Glenlivet, Banff.
Married ANN MACLENNAN MCDONALD Nov 2nd 1900, Perth.
Daughter ELSIE MURRAY KELLAS was born 1902 Alness, Ross and Cromarty.
Wife ANN was born in Wick, Caithness, 1875.
Hope somebody can help with this one as I'm totally confused!
Fiona
Alexander Kellas 1901 Census .....
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CatrionaL
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Fiona
This is perhaps a daft question, but I'll take the risk of asking it, since no one else has come up with any ideas. For your search on the 1901 Census, did you search under "All records" or did you stick to the areas mentionned on your post. I ask because I noticed an Ann M KELLAS in Inverness aged 33 and wondered. Ages are so often "out" on the Census.
Best wishes
Catriona
This is perhaps a daft question, but I'll take the risk of asking it, since no one else has come up with any ideas. For your search on the 1901 Census, did you search under "All records" or did you stick to the areas mentionned on your post. I ask because I noticed an Ann M KELLAS in Inverness aged 33 and wondered. Ages are so often "out" on the Census.
Best wishes
Catriona
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Flo
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CatrionaL
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JustJean
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DavidWW
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Very clear in the census as KELLAS, as long as you know that to begin with!, but also easy to see that a transcriber under pressure to handle so many thousand records a day could see the "s" as an "r".
This is neat example to use for demonstrating techniques with wildcards.
"?" means any single character, but there must be a character. "*" means any number of characters including none.
Step one is to retain the most likely essential elements of the spelling, taking into account the possibility for single rather than double letters, different vowels, and trailing letters such as an "s" or an "e".
In this case I'd have first used K*L*S as the search term. For an age range of 26 to 30 there's only 4 hits for Alex K*L*S (As long as the Returns all forenames ..... box is ticked SP will search for all given names beginning with "Alex").
Depending on the particular name involved, particularly the length, and the number of hits, the search term may have to be changed, or refined, the age range reduced, the area made more specific.
If that doesn't work then I'll move on to retaining the start of the name, so that here I'd search for Alex KEL*, - for an age range of 26 to 30 that produces 18 hits.
Once you gain experience with wildcards you will become more confident and should start using multiple wildcards, - in this case K?LL?* produces 16 hits, and K?LL??* gives 3 hits, - in all cases including the record that's wanted. I wouldn't always use that first "?", - I'm just including it here for the sake of example.
If that didn't work then I'd think about the initial capital. SP is an unusual site in that a leading wildcard is allowed. The only restriction is that there must be a minimum of two letters in the search term.
In this case, that would lead me to try *LAS; searching for Alex *LAS, aged 26 to 30, all Scotland produces 35 hits, largely because, as can often be the case, much more frequently occurring surnames are picked up, - as in this case with DALLAS and DOUGLAS, - using Alex *LLAS cuts out the DOUGLASs, thereby reducing the hits to 9, so some further refinement in terms of age range and area would be advisable, along with the technique of searching for other known family members with the spelling found, before starting to spend credits on images.
In this case searching for an Ann KELLAR, no age restriction, produces 3 hits, one of which matches the refererence for Alexander. Ann KELLA* produces 19 hits, but all that is required is a printo off and a cross-check...
The golden rule in this situation is "Use your imagination"
David
This is neat example to use for demonstrating techniques with wildcards.
"?" means any single character, but there must be a character. "*" means any number of characters including none.
Step one is to retain the most likely essential elements of the spelling, taking into account the possibility for single rather than double letters, different vowels, and trailing letters such as an "s" or an "e".
In this case I'd have first used K*L*S as the search term. For an age range of 26 to 30 there's only 4 hits for Alex K*L*S (As long as the Returns all forenames ..... box is ticked SP will search for all given names beginning with "Alex").
Depending on the particular name involved, particularly the length, and the number of hits, the search term may have to be changed, or refined, the age range reduced, the area made more specific.
If that doesn't work then I'll move on to retaining the start of the name, so that here I'd search for Alex KEL*, - for an age range of 26 to 30 that produces 18 hits.
Once you gain experience with wildcards you will become more confident and should start using multiple wildcards, - in this case K?LL?* produces 16 hits, and K?LL??* gives 3 hits, - in all cases including the record that's wanted. I wouldn't always use that first "?", - I'm just including it here for the sake of example.
If that didn't work then I'd think about the initial capital. SP is an unusual site in that a leading wildcard is allowed. The only restriction is that there must be a minimum of two letters in the search term.
In this case, that would lead me to try *LAS; searching for Alex *LAS, aged 26 to 30, all Scotland produces 35 hits, largely because, as can often be the case, much more frequently occurring surnames are picked up, - as in this case with DALLAS and DOUGLAS, - using Alex *LLAS cuts out the DOUGLASs, thereby reducing the hits to 9, so some further refinement in terms of age range and area would be advisable, along with the technique of searching for other known family members with the spelling found, before starting to spend credits on images.
In this case searching for an Ann KELLAR, no age restriction, produces 3 hits, one of which matches the refererence for Alexander. Ann KELLA* produces 19 hits, but all that is required is a printo off and a cross-check...
The golden rule in this situation is "Use your imagination"
David
Last edited by DavidWW on Wed Mar 01, 2006 10:56 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Jack
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Hi David,
Thanks for that.
I was searching for a hubby & wife in 1901 by the name of KEDDIE,
and did eventually find them, but they were indexed as LEDDIE....
On looking at the original page i could see the "K" might be taken as an "L" at a glance.
(though it was nothing like the "L" in his occupation of Labourer)
Maybe the transcriber really thought it was an "L", but on the other hand, it could've been a typo.
(K and L are next to each other on the keyboard)
I'm so glad KELLAS wasn't as LELLAS...!
Jack
Thanks for that.
I was searching for a hubby & wife in 1901 by the name of KEDDIE,
and did eventually find them, but they were indexed as LEDDIE....
On looking at the original page i could see the "K" might be taken as an "L" at a glance.
(though it was nothing like the "L" in his occupation of Labourer)
Maybe the transcriber really thought it was an "L", but on the other hand, it could've been a typo.
(K and L are next to each other on the keyboard)
I'm so glad KELLAS wasn't as LELLAS...!
Jack
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Flo
- Posts: 15
- Joined: Fri Sep 02, 2005 9:28 pm
Just wanted to say a big Thank You to you all. I'm so pleased to finally have found Alexander and Annie! 
It just never occurred to me to search for them without the 's' on the end of their name. 
You'd think that I'd have remembered some of the search tips that I've read on this site 
Well thats another brick wall broken down thanks to the brilliant people on this site! Thanks once again.
Fiona
It just never occurred to me to search for them without the 's' on the end of their name. You'd think that I'd have remembered some of the search tips that I've read on this site Well thats another brick wall broken down thanks to the brilliant people on this site! Thanks once again.Fiona