A few people have been having difficulty finding ancestors using the address search. Here are some tips to improve your chances of success!

The address search uses data from the RG14 (Household) schedules rather than the RG78 (Enumerators Summary Books). This means that the data being searched is what your ancestors would have written on the form rather than what the enumerator would have written. Because an enumerator would have been more likely to give a single, standard name to a particular street, there will be more variations in what the householders in a road have put on their form.

For example, the road near where I used to live is called “Clapham Manor Street”. Householders in this street have used various permutations such as Manor St, Manor Street, Clapham Manor, Clapham Manor St, Clapham Manor Street and more (including misspellings on the original household page itself).