Follow on in the census

As part of a project I have been following families in a particular Devon village through the censuses. I originally started when the 1901 census came online and followed the families who appeared in 1841 and whose descendants were still there in 1901. Of course 1911 has come online since then and some of the family names disappeared. The village was mainly a farming community and the women often left to go into service in nearby towns and sometimes to London. As I worked my way through a couple of the women proved impossible to find even by checking possible marriages. However when I got to 1911 I had a breakthrough as when searching for one of the children in Devon from 1901 I found her staying in London with an aunt thus finding one of my missing people and I was then able to track her back through the missing census entries. In 1901 she in turn had a daughter who wasn't with the family in 1911 so when searching for her lo and behold she was also staying with another aunt in London - my other missing person!

 

That sounds like an interesting but time consuming project! I often have ideas like that but then I think I have enough with my and my husband's tree without doing anything else. I have considered a one name study but for various reasons did not go ahead, also a one place study, but which of several places? In the end I am still sorting DNA results, so well done.

 

Yes Kate is has been very time-consuming! However there is a thriving history society in the village and despite being small I have had numerous enquiries from others researching their family there. It's quite amusing as almost everyone is descended from the same couple and there are so many marriages between the families. Hopefully my research will be useful for people in the future.

 

I'm sure it will, well done.

 

Hello Emma, out of curiousity, have you gone back before 1841 and how did you store your data?
It would be interesting to do this for Leeds in Kent as I keep falling over the same families there and many are descended from ancestors of mine!
I am not sure I will ever get around to it though. I have visited the place and when I keep researching it, it begins to feel to me as though I lived there!
I am impressed that you have done it.