Genealogy Chat

I am still very much a learner at this, despite being totally hooked! I have had so much help from the people on these boards, both by them answering my threads and by reading other peoples threads and learning that way.
I am sure that I will post asking for help again, but really, really I want to get better at it myself if I can.
So here's the thing - I fill in the search on Ancestry and fill in details - like name and when and where born, etc. Now I have to trawl through pages with dates ranging for a hundred years either side of the date I put in (or so it seems) and from all over the country - even different fore and surnames!
It makes me wonder why I have to put in any details at all! I don't seem able to 'fast forward' to more recent dates or to make the search more specific, even when I ask for two stars or even exact. Yet other people on these boards are able to locate and post the exact details in nano-seconds in response to an enquiry! I know that experience must help but really, how do you do that without endless hours of trawling?
And whilst I am on a roll - why is it that I seem unable to find details of relatives who were born and died this century despite having quite a lot of details about them. It sometimes seems that they did not exist (and yet I know that I knew them).
Any tips on how I can progress on these two points would be gratefully received as I think iI must be doing something wrong.
Thanks all!
Tiger-Lily

Hi Yorkie, I have tried allsorts to reduce the mass, but sometimes when I tick 'Exact matches only' I get nothing at all.
Tiger-Lily

Hi Tiger-Lily,

For people born this century you need to be on the home page but just below the search box it says

Go directly to births, marriages and deaths, you can then chose which one you want fill the name in and the year and start the search through each quarter. The years between about 1910 and 1984 are not transcribed on ancestry and it is a case of trawling through

Best Wishes

Jane

Tiger-Lily
I know exactly what you mean, its not you!
Yorkie's way of doing it works.

Sometimes it happens because it can't find the person you need so it offers any old alternative! remember they're not all on there (or spelled right anyway!)
It can help to go in by the different selections, i.e. "UK census collection " at the righthand list, rather than a general search on a name.You can always get more on them from a later screen.

I've read on here before that this century details aren't all on/ are more difficult to find? I hardly ever find a recent rellie, but not v bothered as going back..back...back...

One thing I would say is tick the "only show UK & Irish" unless you need hundreds of American state censuses!

I still don't know how the peeps on here are so fast at it tho'!!!

Petrina

Tiger - are you talking just about finding births, marriages and deaths or census records aswell? If you enter a recent person then the system will go haywire and give you ALL the people with a name similar to the one you have typed in as there wont be any correct ones for recent dates.

The latest census is 1901 so you wont find anyone after that on a census and the bmd on the name search is the same (well, a bit behind actually) the freebmd site. That is being transcribed by volunteers and so they are working hard at it (bless them) but most records havent gone further than the early 1900s so far. To find bmd after the freebmd dates (try them first just in case) you have to look at the complete bmd index on ancestry and go through looking at the images.

When you do a census search do you tick the box for UK results only by the way?

Thanks for all your help and explanations.
It's back to the drawing board for me then. But really, aren't some people fast!
Tiger-Lily