READERS’ VIEWS ON THE 1921
HOW HAVE YOU GOT ON WITH THE 1921 Census?
It ’s still early days, as, by the time we go to print with the March issue of Family Tree, the 1921 Census will have been available for just a few weeks. Here we share some early reader responses to their 1921 Census investigations. The new record collection has provided an interesting learning curve as we all get to grips with the material, and the discoveries have given new food for thought about our families a century ago.
Colyn Storer
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I found one family, Herbert William Anderson and his wife Ismene (thankfully correctly transcribed) who were ‘holidaying’ at Hastings, stated to be lodgers. I then searched (for hours) for her father (my great-grandfather, Malcolm Muir Webster) and sister (Maggie), both of whom I knew lived at Buxted, Sussex, from 1916 when they arrived from NZ after my greatgrandmother died in 1915. Please see the ‘weird and wonderful’ mistranscriptions of their names:
• Maggie Budge Webster 1869 — Buxted Uckfield Sussex had no birthplace identified, despite it being clearly included on the household schedule image page.
• My great-grandfather Malcolm Muir Webster was transcribed as Malina Minor Webster.
• The name for his grandson (Malcom Anderson Webster) is even more weirdly transcribed: Malelna Audenis. It was impossible to find him in the index, searching on (a) Malcolm, (b) Anderson, (c) Webster, born about 1916, and living anywhere in England or with his parents or grandfather and aunt. Only when I purchased the actual image was it possible to find him.