It is easy to search without looking to see if the record even exists.
Ancestry.com "let" me search the 1810 census for a man who should have been living in Ohio. Problem is that most of the 1810 census for Ohio was destroyed in the War of 1812. If I never get past the search box, I don't realize that.
Are you making certain it really exists before you click "search?"
Ancestry also won't let you specify counties in Virginia that later became West Virginia in searches that are specifically for dates before 1863, for example the 1850 and 1860 censuses.
ReplyDeleteIf you specify the West Virginia version of the county name for a search of the 1850 or 180 censuses, it correctly returns no fords found. However it won't let you select the "correct" (for that timeframe) location of Virginia. The only way I have found to search those counties is a manual browse. Grrrrrr...