1911 Census – a sneak preview!

Last week I received my first Christmas present – a sneak preview of the beta site for the 1911 Census! This is a major new early release of census data and although not allowed to give any details I will share my first impressions.

The 1911 Census is important for three main reasons. Firstly it was the last before the World Wars and was taken during a period of consistently high birth rate. Known as the ‘Fertility’ Census, it includes a level of detail never before collected such as length of and births per marriage.

 From A Century of Change: Trends in UK statistics since 1900, House of Commons Research Paper 99/111, 21 December 1999.

Secondly internet-based genealogy has progressed so much in ten years that we now have an unparalleled ability to trawl such new sources. Their usefulness is of course dependant on the quality of the site design and the databases and on having the right tools for searching and recording results.

Finally genealogy having experienced a boom in interest in recent years has many new researchers many of who are under forty. For this group these records will provide details of relatives who the have known personally.

[in editing]
1.
2. welsh records, search by address, saved searches and purchases
3.details of infirmity or other health-related information, information
about family relationships, which would usually have been kept secret,
and information about very young children who were born in prison’ will
not be released until 2012

So… [in the process of writing - more soon]

Future Censuses: “In 1942, the 1931 census was destroyed in a fire at the Office of Works, in Middlesex, where it was being stored. Owing to World War 2, no census was taken in 1941. After the 1921 census, the next census available will be the 1951 census, which is expected to be released in January 2052.”