Address search at FMP

Before FMP changed to it's new format I could do an address search in the census section and just put the name of the town in the appropiate box and a list of all the streets in that town would be shown. In the new format I do not appear to be able to do that, can anyone help, please?

 

A good question Heather. Have you tried switching to the 'old search' (top left 'Looking for the old search?)

I also found under Q&A searching for address search: 'The 1911 census address search is still available, this can be found when on the 1911 census.

It also added that to search by address only select the address tab; and added this link. Address Good luck and let us know if it works.

 

Despite my best efforts and trying my previous advice, I could not find the elusive Address search and even the link failed me, so hope someone else comes up with the solution. No wonder I've gone off FMP or perhaps it has gone off me

 

Well I expect so (mine didn't work for some reason) and it leads to the FMP Search page but where does it show the 'Address tab' promised as per my posting to Heather? If you just enter a town and nothing else it will default from AA to ZZ names and not as it would if it was searching by address. But thanks for sorting out the search, not that it appears to provide the answer.

I have asked FMP to comment on address searching but don't hold your breath.

 

I may have had a Eureka moment just tinkering about with FMP searching. On a Search page click on the A to Z of Record Sets and enter the Census year (eg 1911 Census for England and Wales) -you need only type 1911 Census and it will show as shown.
Then Voila! it opens giving the option to search by person or address! Once you select Address the search criteria changes and requires entries under Parish or Town. You can then filter by county (or country) and even street. The Search tabs then displays (for 1911 at any rate) Search Street Results for 1911 Census for England and Wales. That as I recall is what used to be found by a less arduous route.

By the way if you search by Person, this will also allow a Reference search (Reg District, Piece, Schedule etc) which like the Address search can be exceedingly useful at times.

 

Thankyou for your efforts Bob and Tim, I have tried your suggestions and only the 1901 and 1911 census have a Person/ Address option, which is great if what you are searching for, is in those years. On the old FMP site one could bring up a search for the earlier census years and only enter the town name and would be shown a list of all the streets etc in that town. Then I could trawl through the list picking out the ones I thought would help. There was even a group of addresses under "Others " or some such heading, for all the big houses that stood alone and did not have a street address as such. This method helped me find quite a few ancestors whose names may have been mistranscribed and who I knew still lived in the town. I am originally from Darwen in Lancashire and some of the addresses were not your average street names. I suppose most small towns and villages all had their "Back Wood Street"with farms being quite hard to find and some of the areas would only have one house, with no street name until more houses were built in that area, so were described as "Top of Meadow" or "Owd Timothys" eg. The new FMP site has lots of great features, but I wish they had left this particular search facility on there. Thanks again.

 

Surprisingly, but creditably, FMP have responded to my query and actually state that an address search 'still' can be found after opening to a Census Land & Surveys page:

If you wish to search a specific census year for an address, please type the census
year into the "when" field and you can then type in the registration district,
or county, you are searching in into the "where" field. Further down the
page you will see the option to enter the address details.

They make no mention of using the 'A-Z of Record sets' despite that being displayed top right of the page and I am sure you would have tried what they suggest anyway (I certainly did and it did not produce any street names, whereas the A-Z Record set did). I have to own to only trying the 1911 set and take your word that it does not work for other than that Census and 1901. I cannot recall trying for an address search with older Censuses but I am sure it worked after a fashion for both 1881 or perhaps 1891.

They go on to say :"If you experience any issues with searching for an address in the census, please just send a reply
back to this email with full details of the address as we are happy to check this for you"

So if you would like me to do this let me have the details being sought and I will pass it on for you.

 

With respect Alexander, neither is your interpretation or at least pays no attention to my own response which showed FMP did also for Address searches; even though as Heather later comments did not go far enough.

However you do make a good point when you say (in caps)..." YOU DIDN'T KNOW THE ADDRESS but could enter the parish name and get a list of the addresses in the parish" That is the question I now need to ask and so have concocted a reply asking how his can now be discovered, or if it such a search will be reinstated. Will let you know what they say.

 

Thanks Alexander I follow all that and it has brought back memories of using the old concept 'address' search myself. As I recall it was temperamental and need precise parish details to be useful and required some trial and error searching. However I recall once finding a whole family group living in Birmingham Back-to-back houses from the merest hint of a road address and discovering the whereabouts of an old Yard in Worcester that changed its name through different Censuses. I had actually forgotten the existence of the search until it was recalled by Heather's posting and your own input. Let's hope it still exists or we can get in back but the trouble is so called improvements often mean the abandonment of old style searches. It happened in Ancestry as we all know.

 

Alexander and Bob, thanks so much for your imput into this problem.

Bob, I have tried several ways to find the address search that was included in the old FMP site, but to no avail, I have contacted FMP but have not received an answer yet. Thank you for offering to pass on my details to them, but I have no details to pass on, as such, apart from, I just want the old search facility on FMP restored.

Alexander, yes that is what I mean

Bob, yes it was a bit temperamental, but a very handy tool, if one could navigate through it.

So it seems we are all now "on the same page" as they say, but not on the page that at FMP could help us find pages of addresses !!!! Oh well maybe FMP will listen and restore it, who knows?

 

I thought it was strange that I had not received a reply from FMP re: my address search query so I had another look in my email box and yes you guessed it I had deleted it by mistake. It was similar wording to the reply you received Bob, here is a copy of my reply to them........................

Hi Sophie, thanks for your reply, I tried the links but the data entered into the search fields does not give me what I am looking for. If I enter "Over Darwen" in the parish field and "Lancashire" in the county field and then "search" I get a list of every person's name on the census that lived in Over Darwen at that time, that is not what I want, I want a list of streets, lanes, roads etc in Over Darwen at that time, then if I chose one particular street, a list of house numbers would be shown, which I could trawl through to find the family I was searching for, which is what the old FMP search gave me, please can you restore this type of search, it was very useful finding obscure addresses for the same property that changed from one census to the next. Thanks Heather

I will let you know what happens, but I am not holding my breath.

 

Hi Heather, Received my own reply (from Sophie also) to my follow up query (largely as Alexander posted) and guess what her answer confirms ..This option is still available on the 1911 and 1901 censuses on the site. She then gives a link to each which takes you to each Census (via the A-Z Record Sets) and tells you to select Address search.

She appears to have ignored what I mentioned about locating Streets as previous address searches allowed (which I see you also raised in greater detail from your email extract) and goes on to add: ...We hope to add this feature to the rest of the censuses but we do not have a time-scale for this I'm afraid. Even here I believe she just means the same as now for 1901 & 1911.

I think the loss of the old form of searching may well be something to do with its recent merger of databases and clearly the old FMP lost out, but perhaps Peter can explain that better than I.

 

Thank you Alexander, that is exactly what I meant when I started this post, you have explained the problem very well, I used the old search quite a few times and I really miss it, but no matter how I explain it to FMP they do not understand the problem. It's the old addage I suppose " If it ain't broke don't fix it"