Ancestry

[Tim]

Please add your useful search tips for Ancestry here.

Ancestry.co.uk

 

[AnneC]

To find a description of the Enumeration District your ancestor lived in:

First find the details of the particular record you are interested in



This will give you the details you need to search for the description.

Go to Search Census and Electoral Rolls



Pick the relevant census



In the Browse section on the right choose the details that were on the original record.



Click on the District required (district 4 in this example) and this will take you to an image of the enumerator's district description.



This often gives interesting extras, in this case the location of the "Infectious Hospital"

 

[Cathy]

There is a quicker way to see the Enumeration District description
I used to:
View the Census image
At the top of the image you'll see
County > Town > District #
eg
Devon > Whitchurch > District 1

Click on the town link then in the dialogue that comes up click on the View description for the relevant district.

However they have changed things so that the Enumeration District Description is the first page.

so now - just go to page 1

 

[peter]

Finding your way around the Ancestry website is quite a challenge, although it's not as bad as it was. I use My Quick Links on the right-hand side of the home page to take me to the datasets that I use the most. Of course, you've got to set them up in the first place!

 

[Cathy]

Ah Quick Links - once you could access them from pages other than the Home Page. Now you can't. So I have made my most used databases into a Favourites collection. Ancestry is one of the very few websites I view with Internet Explorer browser.

 

[Tim]

Ancestry is one of the very few websites I view with Internet Explorer browser.

Why's that? Is there a special reason?

 

[Cathy]

It used to be that their enhanced viewer only worked in IE. Not sure about now but I tend to have so many tabs open that it's useful to know that the Ancestry tabs are in one browser and the rest in another. My default browser is Opera but it's not as fast as it was and I'm beginning to stray over to Chrome.

 

[Tim]

Right, makes sense. I also have 2 or 3 different sessions open, then I can Alt-Tab between then quickly.

 

[Bob Spiers]

I had 'rested' IE for quite a while preferring Chrome or Firefox in all instances, but read recently in my Computer Magazine that Internet Explorer Version 10 - newly released for Windows 7 (as originally written for Windows 8)-was a vastly improved and faster browser. In tests conducted by them they said it out performed all the others. It is only for Windows 7 (or 8 obviously) and does not work with Vista or XP which use Version 9 or earlier.

As my main PC has Windows 7 I followed the link and downloaded the (so called) improved IE. There were articles in the Mag on its new features -improved security for one - but I was more interested in trying it for myself.

I can report it worked very well in Ancestry performing better all round but I noticed a vast improvement when researching in FMP. Some of the FMP idiosyncrasies experienced using either Firefox or Chrome (I have written about them elsewhere) were totally absent. It responded with alacrity as I clicked on each search parameter. The computer is the same, so it had to be the new IE browser, but I went back to Chrome/Firefox just to be sure. Both my other machines (a PC & a laptop) have Vista so will continue with Chrome or Firefox, but from now on my main PC will be set to use IE.

I can't pass on the link as it is likely copyrighted to the magazine, but if you Google Internet Explorer 10 and select the download from the Microsoft site, you should have no problem downloading your own copy. But remember you have to have Windows 7 and if you are using Windows 8 you have IE 10 already.

 

[Cathy]

Thanks for that review of IE 10 Bob. I have been hanging off downloading it - notification of it is sitting in my Windows Updates - as I'm wary of things newly released from Microsoft but I guess it's been around for awhile now. I don't use IE for much apart from Ancestry these days but I'll go ahead and update.

 

[MaryK]

The "Suggested Records - these records may also be relevant to ... " which appears now can be a very, very useful source of additional information.
Obviously, many are not your relation, it does say "may be ", or you already have that record, but in some they are really good and helpful.

Since 2009 I have been looking for the Dring family after 1881, I re-visit the "missings" every so often as more info comes on line. Yesterday I tried them again - and Hey Presto ! Ancestry have now linked them to Canadian records - and there they all were ! They went in 1882 and appear on Canadian censuses from 1891. I would not have found them but for this Ancestry facility.
All I need now is to be able to enter them on LC - Canadian Census 1911 coming anytime soon ?

 

[peter]

No plans to add the 1911 Canada census at the moment - but if you've already found them on 1881 British census and entered them on your My Ancestors page that will maximise your chance of finding cousins.

 

[MaryK]

No plans to add the 1911 Canada census at the moment - but if you've already found them on 1881 British census and entered them on your My Ancestors page that will maximise your chance of finding cousins.

Yes - have done

 

[Emmyw]

Why's that? Is there a special reason?

I recently downloaded in excess of 500 jpegs from Ancestry while they had free access to the UK Wills site. Went to have a look for them and found I couldn't find them anywhere although they were in the 'history'. That was using firefox. Repeated the exercise the next day using IE - no problems!!

 

[AnneC]

I recently downloaded in excess of 500 jpegs from Ancestry while they had free access to the UK Wills site. Went to have a look for them and found I couldn't find them anywhere although they were in the 'history'. That was using firefox. Repeated the exercise the next day using IE - no problems!!

Apparently there is also a problem using Google Chrome. I contacted Ancestry and they said that IE was the only supported browser.

 

[Norman]

Not sure why they would say that. I've used Firefox almost exclusively with no problems on Ancestry. EmmyW - you will probably have two sets of JPGs on your system somewhere. The download location is probably set differently in Firefox and IE.

 

[Bob Spiers]

I have had Google Chrome problems when using Ancestry but not many with Firefox even though neither are officially supported by Ancestry. Historically I have always used my Vista computer for Ancestry which only supports IE 9(or previous revisions). The same thing with an XP PC.

I fell out with IE 9 some time ago (lots of reasons) but find the new IE 10 on my Windows 7 PC works a treat. If you have Windows 7 (you get it with Win 8 automatically) I recommend upgrading to IE 10 which I find much faster than either Google Chrome or Firefox. And as I pointed out earlier this opinion is now being shared by computer magazines, or at least those I read at any rate.

Incidentally Ancestry is not the only online provider to only declare support for IE, my ISP & online Bank both declare the same.

 

[Norman]

When Microsoft offer an Internet Explorer that supports colour management then I might switch. It's important to me that images shown in a browser are exhibited in the correct colours.

 

[Bob Spiers]

When Microsoft offer an Internet Explorer that supports colour management then I might switch. It's important to me that images shown in a browser are exhibited in the correct colours.

I understand the gist of your point - IE colours are incorrect - and assume other browsers permit adjustments. It is not something that concerns me -in the sense I have no overriding need for colours to be other than colours as presented -but I have my own holy grails as to how browsers perform, so accept the point you make.

 

[Norman]

Perhaps I should have said "It's important to me that my images shown in a browser are exhibited in the correct colours"