Finding an ancestor on the 1891 census
Now that I know the date of birth of my great grandfather from the 1901 census, I can go back 10 years and try and find him on the 1891 census. The 1901 returns told me where he was born as well so I can use that to identify the correct individual.
Simply by doing a search on Ancestry using the surname and Christian name of my great grandfather, his date of birth (plus or minus one year) and his place of birth brings up a selection of possible ancestors for me to choose from. However, the place of birth shown in the list soon identifies only one likely contender, though of course this might not be him. There is always the possibility that someone was out of the country or not listed for some other reason. Sometimes someone was in an institution, a hospital perhaps and although that shouldn’t stop them being recorded, can make them harder to find.
In this case though, the only slight inaccuracy is that the age is given as 17, whereas he was given as 28 in the 1901 census. I don’t know his birthday so it could have been around census day, or there might be another explanation. It is very easy to make a mistake and start researching the wrong person, so any inconsistencies are of concern. However, everything else is right, place of birth, he is a general labourer in both censuses, so it looks like I have the right guy.
The next step is go back 10 years to the 1881 census records