Census returns are some of the most important records you will need to use in your genealogical research. And thanks to the miracle of the internet they are all available online in an easy to use format.
These records are important because they record almost everybody who was living in Britain on a particular night. They give the names, age, relationship, marital status, occupation and birthplace of every person living in each house, although the 1841 census is not as detailed as the later ones.
Often you can obtain information from them that you can get from no other source.
The first census was taken in 1801 but was little more than a headcount, and it wasn’t until 1841 that the names and other details of individuals were collected. There has been a census every ten years since then and the returns for all years up to 1911 are available.
The online services are very much designed for the beginner. You type in the name you are researching into an index and it will tell you where it appears. You can then decide whether to look at images of the census itself or a transcript of the entry, which is usually cheaper.
Searching the index is free although there is a small charge to download and view the original images or transcripts.
A complete set of the censuses is available at ancestry.co.uk. Many local libraries have a subscription to the site where you can use their service for free.
Findmypast (www.findmypast.co.uk) also has a complete set of census records, and the 1901 census is at 1901censusonline.com. This has a very good index.
Transcripts of the 1881 census is available for free at www.findmypast.com and wwwfamilysearch.org. Transcripts of other censuses are available (for a fee) at www.thegenealogist.co.uk. Many family history societies have compiled detailed and very accurate indexes for their areas, particularly for the 1851 census. These are often available online at familyhistoryonline.co.uk.
The 1911 census is very different to the other censuses and is rather more informative. It is available at findmypast.co.uk. However, entries containing potentially sensitive information will remain hidden until January 2012.
Scottish census records (1841-1901) are at scotlandspeople.gov.uk. Irish census records for 1911 are available at www.census.nationalarchives.ie. The 1901 census will be added during 2010. Few records of earlier censuses survive
Problems and pitfalls
Although the online censuses are pretty accurate, inevitably transcribers do misread entries. If you can’t find your ancestor, trying using a wild card symbol to replace a letter or letters – for example Wood* will list all the Woods, Woodwards and so on, or Wo?d will reveal Wood, Word, Wold and so forth.
Or try all the variants on the name you can think off – for Wood, you might try Ward, Vood, or even Hood.
If you do find your ancestor and the index is wrong, don’t forget to tell the data provider so that they can amend the entry, so that other people won’t have your problems.
There are two other points to note:
Often the ages are slightly wrong – usually because the individual did not know how old they were.
Occupations may also be misleading, because poor people in particular may have had two or more jobs to make ends meet. And curiously although there were tens of thousands of prostitutes in Victorian England, almost none are so described in the census.
