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Can anyone tell me the best way to search for someone in a census or BMD on Scotlands People when they have a name like James McDonald Anderson or James Anderson McDonald . I can't type in the whole name and when I put in James McDonald or James Anderson, hundreds come up!!! Betty

Betty, I wish I knew the answer to the question as it would have saved me a fortune on searches on ScotlandsPeople. If I choose exact I get no results and if I choose soundex then get dozens which sound nothing like the names I am looking for. Not one of my rellies do I have a complete set of birth, marriage and deaths. If I find a death then can not find a birth or marriage. Maureen

Hi Maureen, Yes I am having the same problem, when they have two christian names its awful, you just can't get the whole name onto the search. There are a awful lot of Anderson's and McDonalds in Scotland. Betty

If you know the middle name then put James M Anderson or James A McDonald, i find it cuts alot of the returns.

I can't have a try because I haven't got any credits on there, but from what I can remember every time I end up cursing their search facilities and wishing they would licence it to ancestry! Kate.

As always with a situation like this, we need to start with what you know. Do you know the names of his parents, spouse(s), and/or children? Do you know when he and the other family members were born? Do you know where he and the other family members were born? Do you know what he or his father did for a living? If it's a consolation, I tracked down my g. g. grandfather in the Scottish census despite the fact that he was a Henderson and that the few clues about where he was from indicated three different counties!

I have rellies born in the 1820's that I can follow through all on the census - find their marriage - but no death records - so must still be alive and well. I was looking for McKill - soundex brings up names such as Maxwell. Maureen

Hi Willow, The search on ScotlandsPeople doesn't work when you put in the first letter of the middle name, it just doesn't search for this one letter or even two or three letter in the middle name. Betty

bit expensive looking at all the images to track down the one you want. All mine are Campbells, a nightmare name, and the only way I find them is with their middle names and by using the method I said.

Well, I'm sure you can't search on birthplace on Scotland's People, so knowing where somebody was born doesn't help with census searches unless they kindly stayed in the same place. It does seem to be set up assuming that people stayed in the same place all their lives! If they have a common name and you can't find them in their birth county, you end up with way too many to search through as far as I can remember. Kate.

well if i put campbell as the surname and alexander M as the first name, works ok for me.

I was trying to help someone the other day on ScotlandsPeople, they said this person was in the 1891 census and 1901 census in Aberdeen but I can't find him in either of them because of the middle name problem.... Betty

do you remember approx dob and area?

was he about 15 in 1891?

Hi Willow, No that name I put on the board is not the correct one, just used that as an example. I was looking for William Alexander Hepburn aged 24 in Aberdeen in the 1901 census and aged 14 in the 1891. He was working as a jiner in the 1901. Betty

Using the aforementioned details, you can use 'triangulation' to narrow down the possible families. So, for example [using fictional details]: James McDonald, born c. 1836 plus or minus five years, and living in Lanarkshire, might give you 30 possibilities for the 1851 census Margaret McDonald [his mother], born c. 1804 plus or minus five years, and living in Lanarkshire, might give you 43 possibilities On the face of it, this gives you up to 30 possibilities for the two together. So what you do is then tick off the GROS Data references for Margaret by comparing them with those for James. This should eliminate quite a number of them. Obviously this process is not foolproof, but it means that you're concentrating on the highest probabilities: a man is more likely to be living with his wife than not, and young children are more likely to be with their parents than not. Hope this made sense! Edited to add: By doing the above, you're spending credits on viewing search results, of course, but you're not having to spend further credits on all those 30 results for James McDonald. If 8 of the results are for districts that don't appear in the results for Margaret, then *probably* you can rule those out, and so you won't have to waste your money looking at the images. No guarantees, of course, but this seems the most efficient way of working.

Ok, if I type in Hepburn as the surname and william as the first I get 164 matches with no areas selected. But if I type in Hepburn as the surname, william A as the first I only get 2 matches. is this him on the 1891? 1891 HEPBURN WILLIAM A M 14 ST NICHOLAS ABERDEEN CITY/ABERDEEN 168/01 052/01 018

Hi Andew, No it doesn't make sense to me, I think I will have to read the a few times to understand it. What do you mean by the GRO numbers I don't quite follow that bit, do you mean the would be the same?? Betty

Hi again Willow, Yes thats him, why did mine come up with nothing then?? I entered his christian name and then part of his middle name, then surname, nothing came up. Betty

Andrew, That is the way that I found a lot of my Skinner, Sutherland, Will and Caven families. Maureen