FFHS-NEWS 1911 Census for Wales

[News from the Federation of Family History Societies]

>From FMP
 
1911 CENSUS FOR WALES GOES ONLINE TODAY
*    Online access to  the records of 2.4 million people living in Wales in 
1911
*     Major new family history resource

2.4 million people were recorded living  in Wales in the census taken on 
the night of Sunday, 2 April, 1911. Today, after  nearly 100 years, the Welsh 
census records are available to the public at  www.1911census.co.uk.  

Due to public demand for access to the 1911  census, the records have been 
released as soon as each region's records have  been digitised. Following 
the initial release of 1911 records in January 2009,  the records of people 
living in Wales in 1911 are being made available today for  the first time. 

The 1911 census records contain details about the lives  of the ancestors 
of many of Wales' famous sons and daughters, such as Richard  Burton, Dylan 
Thomas, Kylie Minogue and Tom Jones.

The census covered  Wales, England, the Isle of Man and the Channel 
Islands, as well as recording  those aboard Royal Naval and Merchant vessels at sea 
and in foreign ports and,  for the first time in a British census, full 
details of British Army personnel  and their families in military 
establishments overseas. It is the most detailed  census since UK records began and the 
first for which the original census  schedules have been preserved - complete 
with our ancestors' own handwriting -  providing a fascinating insight into 
British society nearly a century  ago.

www.1911census.co.uk is easy to access and enables the public to  view high 
quality colour images of their ancestors' original handwritten census  
returns. Transcribed text versions of the records ensure they are fully  
searchable by name or address.

Public demand for the 1911 census, which  will be a key resource for family 
historians, has resulted in the records being  released earlier than the 
scheduled 2012 date. To make this early online release  to the public 
possible, the 1911 census team worked around the clock for two  years - scanning on 
average one census page per second. In line with data  protection 
legislation, certain sensitive information relating to infirmity and  to children of 
women prisoners will be held back until 2012.  

Comprehensive and rigorously tested, www.1911census.co.uk has been  
developed by UK-based family history website findmypast.com, owned by  brightsolid, 
in association with The National Archives. 

Debra Chatfield,  Marketing Manager at findmypast.com, said: "This latest 
release from the 1911  census offers a crucial new entry point to Welsh 
family history research for a  wide range of people, from novice family 
historians to seasoned genealogists who  have hit a 'wall' in their family tree 
research. As well as helping people trace  their Welsh ancestors, these records 
shed more light on our predecessors'  day-to-day lifestyles, providing a 
snapshot of a day in their lives, with  details of their occupations, housing 
arrangements and social status."  

The 1911 census is huge - occupying over two kilometres of shelving - an  
incredible eight million paper census returns have been transcribed to create 
 over 16 million digital images. This makes the 1911 census one of the 
biggest  digitisation projects ever undertaken by The National Archives in 
association  with a commercial partner. 

Oliver Morley, Director of Customer and  Business Development at The 
National Archives, commented: "This is a major  achievement. By teaming up with 
findmypast.com, we are bringing history to life  for millions. This remarkable 
record is available online to researchers and  family historians all over 
the world for future generations. The 1911 census is  a poignant reflection 
of how different life was in early 20 century Wales,  before the Great War." 


Handwritten records
Completed by all  householders in Wales and England on Sunday, 2 April 
1911, the census records  show the name, age, place of birth, marital status and 
occupation of every  resident in every home, as well as their relationship 
to the head of the  household. 

People will also have unique access to their ancestors'  handwriting as the 
original householders' schedules were preserved and used as  working 
documents rather than copying the details in to summary books as was the  case in 
previous census years.  The launch of the records also creates a  starting 
point for people to trace their own family tree by looking up their  parents, 
grandparents and great-grandparents who were alive in the year 1911.  

'Fertility Census'
The 1911 census was the first to ask questions  relating to fertility in 
marriage.  Married women were asked to state how  long they had been married 
and how many children had been born from that  marriage.  The census also 
provides a fascinating snapshot of the  population of the country just a few 
years before a whole generation of young  men perished in the Great War of 
1914-1918.

How to use the 1911 Census  records

*    Log on to www.1911census.co.uk and register for  free
*    Search for an ancestor in 1911 by entering their name  
*    If the name is common you can enter their approximate year of  birth, 
which will help to narrow down the results
*    Search for  an address to look up the history of your house or an 
ancestor's address in 1911  
*    Pay as you go to view each record. You will be charged 10  credits per 
transcript and 30 credits for each original household page. Visitors  to 
the website can buy 60 credits for £6.95. 
*    Findmypast.com  vouchers are also valid on 1911census.co.uk. Vouchers 
can be purchased from The  National Archives bookshop and redeemed on 
findmypast.com. Credits can then be  spent on both findmypast.com and 
1911census.co.uk.
*    For more  information about using the 1911 census for family history 
research, 'Census:  The Expert Guide' by Peter Christian and David Annal is 
available from The  National Archives online bookshop at 
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk  


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