Census search by address - missing side of street

[Helen7]

I am trying to trace a household in the 1871 census. I have the address of the head of the household from the electoral register but want to know who is living with him.

So I did an address search on FindMyPast and easily found the street in question (Greek Street, Stockport). However, looking through the images, all the even numbers are there but none of the odd numbers. The address I'm looking for is one of the latter. The odd numbers are there in 1861 and 1851 but not 1871.

Is it usual for halves of streets to be missing from the census records, or am I not looking in the right place?

 

[peter]

Is it usual for halves of streets to be missing from the census records

It can happen, but bear in mind that an enumerator might choose a different route from his predecessors, so make sure you look through the entire book. Streets can also be split between enumeration districts; I usually start by looking at the description of the enumeration district at the front of the book (this not normally available at Findmypast , but Ancestry does have it).

 

[Bob Spiers]

So I did an address search on FindMyPast and easily found the street in question (Greek Street, Stockport). However, looking through the images, all the even numbers are there but none of the odd numbers. The address I'm looking for is one of the latter.

As I happened to be in FMP when I read your post Helen, out of curiosity I did a search for Greek Street, Stockport in the 1871 Census and found 258 hits. I hit on the first and it opened at 67 Greek Street (John Brown-1828) and it was the last item on the Schedule page , leading on from James Street (5-11). Then moving forward by pages - ALL the numbers next revealed were ODD reducing ie 65-53; 51-43; 41-35; 33-25; 23-15; 13-5;3-1 then leading into (what looks like) Oliver Street. So quite the reverse of your own search; ALL ODD.

This seems to reinforce Peter's comment about the route of the Enumerator as the search came across no even numbers. If you provide a surname I will see if I can pinpoint his address but no doubt you can do that yourself if you follow on from John Brown.

 

[Helen7]

Thanks Peter and Bob. Silly me, I'd looked at the first hit and moved forward page by page till I got to another street. Following Bob's advice, I looked at the last hit and moved backwards, and all the odd numbers were there!

Unfortunately, the address I was looking for (no. 7) is listed as 'unoccupied'! However, I think I know what happened. The man I was looking for was the owner of a cotton mill and on electoral registers of the 1870s he's listed as living at the mill, which probably explains why I can't find him on the 1871 census as industrial premises aren't normally listed.

This is part of a mystery I've been trying to solve for a while. The man in question - John Marsland Lingard - is named on the marriage certificate of my relative William Lingard as his father. However, I have never been able to find William's birth, or indeed any trace of him in censuses before he married in 1884 (aged 21). I thought perhaps he might be the illegitimate child of one of John's two servants living with him at 7 Greek St in 1861 but searches on their surnames haven't revealed anything useful. I guess it will have to remain a mystery!

 

[peter]

I guess it will have to remain a mystery!

If there's a descendant of William Lingard who can take a DNA test you'll have a very good chance of solving it.

 

[Helen7]

If there's a descendant of William Lingard who can take a DNA test you'll have a very good chance of solving it.

Unfortunately, I don't know any of the living descendants of William Lingard. I only knew his son, my great uncle, but he died in 1968 leaving no living heirs. My great uncle had two older brothers, though, so there's a chance there might be living descendants somewhere. I'll keep an eye on my DNA matches.

EDIT: I should perhaps add that William's son was my great uncle by marriage, his wife being my mother's aunt (and they were like grandparents to me). But they were 1st cousins, and he was a blood relative of mine through his mother, my 2nd great aunt, if that makes sense. So a DNA match to William's descendants is still possible.