Ancestry.co.uk Free 1911 Census

I am loving the free access to the 1911 Census on Ancestry.co.uk this weekend (11-14th May). I have discovered an ancestor was a soldier and added a new 4x great grandfather to my tree.

Get on there quick!

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Key Sources for Family History: Census Records

The census was used to count the number of people living in the United Kingdom. These have been taken since 1801 but it is only from 1841 that they start to really be of use for family historians. With each census more information was requested so they become even more useful. With data restrictions there is a 100 year embargo in England & Wales so family historians were only just allowed access to the 1911 census in 2010.

Each page of census data has the locality it was taken in so you can see County, District and Town/Village information. The road and house number or name should also be included. Below I have listed the years of the main census and the information that was added each time.

1841

1. Name.
2. Age (For those over 15, this was rounded down to the nearest 5 years).
3. Profession or Occupation.
4. Whether born “in county”, elsewhere in the UK or in “Foreign Parts”

1851

1. Relationship to head of household
2. Age at last birthday
3. Marital status
4. Rank, profession, or occupation
5. Place of birth more exact
6. Blind, deaf or idiot
7. In Ireland language spoken

1861

1871

1. Economic status
2. Whether blind, deaf, dumb, imbecile, idiot, or lunatic.

1881

1. Language spoken (Scotland)
   

1891

1. Language spoken (Wales)
2. Whether an employer, an employee, or neither.
3. Number of rooms occupied, if fewer than 5

1901

1. Number of rooms in dwelling.
2. Whether an employer, worker or working on one’s own account.
3. Whether working at home or not.
4. “Language spoken (children under 3 years of age to be excluded)” (in Wales)

1911

1. Industry or service with which the worker is connected.
2. How long the couple has been married.
3. How many children were born alive, how many who are still alive, and how many who have died.

1921

1. Place of work

1931 (destroyed in World War 2)

1. Place of usual residence

1951

1. Household amenities
   

1961

1. Qualifications
2. Migration
3. Household tenure

1971

1. Car ownership
2. Travel to work

1981

1991

1. Ethnic group
2. Long-term limiting illness
3. Central heating
4. Term-time address of student

2001

1. Size of workforce
2. Supervisor status
3. First question on religion on the main census form (England, Wales, and Scotland)

2011 (scheduled for 27th March)

1. Includes questions relevant to civil partnerships.
2. Other new questions involve asking migrants their date of arrival and how long they intend to stay in the UK, and will also require respondents to disclose which passports they hold