Search by Census reference in Ancestry?

[Bob Spiers]

I have forgotten how to search by Census Reference in Ancestry. I know well how to do it in FMP but for the life of me I cannot recall how to direct Ancestry to perform a reference search. Perhaps it is tied into the 'Old Search/New Search' preferences (I tend to stay with New Search these days) but if someone can enlighten me how to do it I shall be most obliged. (I am searching from within my Tree by the way, not as a cold search from the Toolbar, should this make a difference).

The main reason is that I want to save the resultant search (to my Ancestry Tree) rather than laboriously copy from FMP, especially where there are a lot of names. It really occurs when Ancestry cannot locate someone already found in FMP (hence knowing the reference). I know there is chance -perhaps a strong chance - it was simply missed by Ancestry (and yes the reverse also happens) but it would be nice to go to a reference search to make sure.

 

[Alexander Bisset]

The key Bob is that you cannot search UK census (any year) or UK census specific year for instance you must search the specific census country for the specific year eg: Search the 1881 England & Wales census
The reason is that the index info varies for different years and different parts of UK so you have to be in the right database before it will show you the reference fields. eg: the link above has ED, Piece & Folio.

 

[Tim]

Once you are down to a low enough level, the fields appear in the search box.

So in the example below, I did
Search
Census + Electoral records
On the right, 1881 UK Census Collection (or you could select 1881 England Census from the bottom list)
Scroll to the bottom and select 1881 England Census
And now the form allows you to enter the Census Reference data.

Here's a link to this page.

 

[Bob Spiers]

The key Bob is that you cannot search UK census (any year) or UK census specific year for instance you must search the specific census country for the specific year eg: Search the 1881 England & Wales census
The reason is that the index info varies for different years and different parts of UK so you have to be in the right database before it will show you the reference fields. eg: the link above has ED, Piece & Folio.

Perfect, that answers my question on the button. Many thanks.

As a small aside (and perhaps to help others), after turning to my other PC (set in New Search) and selecting to search by 'Census & Electoral Rolls' it offered a 'Narrow the Search category' (eg) 1881 UK Census collection. This can be searched 'as is' but not being country specific does not include an ED/Piece/Folio option. But on the left it offered to narrow this further and listed each of the following (Channel Isles/England/Isle of Man/Scotland & Wales). Selecting England (in this example) produced the same page as your link, thus permitting the reference search.

Out of curiosity I switched to Old Search/Census & Electoral Rolls which instead of first offering a UK Collection lists every single Census starting with 1841 through 1911 shown separately for each country. So by selecting 1881 England I achieved the same ends, and perhaps a little quicker. Now all I have to do is remember this for the future.

 

[Bob Spiers]

Once you are down to a low enough level, the fields appear in the search box.

So in the example below, I did
Search
Census + Electoral records
On the right, 1881 UK Census Collection (or you could select 1881 England Census from the bottom list)
Scroll to the bottom and select 1881 England Census
And now the form allows you to enter the Census Reference data.

Here's a link to this page.

Typically that shows what I took two extended paragraphs to say in a neat step-by step example. Thanks Tim and that will I'm sure help others

 

[Tim]

We aim to please.