Last year we blogged about family members missing from the census and this month one of our researchers has found another example of what can occur at the time of the census enumeration being filled in.
Whilst searching for a family in the 1861 census in Richmond, Surrey, after the list of family members, then lodgers was a household member who was 'absent'.
The householder recording the information had clearly decided to show that there was usually an additional person living at the address, although on that night they were not there. Not surprisingly, there was no additional information on this 'absent' person, such as sex, age, occupation or place of birth.
If you ever cannot find a family member in a census, this could be the reason; it may be that this person was recorded at the address they were visiting, but equally they may have simply been missed, causing genealogists 150 years later to scratch their heads!
Contact us today if we can be of any assistance looking for your missing ancestors, or other 'brick walls' that you may have encountered in your family history research.
