Sunday, June 21, 2009

Entire 1911 Census Now Available Online for the First Time

The following is from FindMyPast.com

*Records for Wales, Channel Islands and Isle of Man and military serving overseas now online

Following the initial release of the Southern English records in January 2009, 1911census.co.uk now hosts the complete 1911 census records for people living in England, Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. What's more, for the first time in a British census, full details are available of British Army personnel and their families stationed overseas. There were 135,866 people serving in the British Army and 36,804 people serving in the Royal Navy across the British Empire in 1911, including 69,785 serving in India.

The 1911census.co.uk website service has been developed by UK-based family history website findmypast.com, owned by brightsolid, in association with The National Archives. Completed by 36 million householders 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 and the online records include images of our ancestors' own handwriting. For the first time the enumerators' summary books for the whole of England and Wales have also gone online today, recording details of all properties in the country in 1911 - a great resource for anyone interested in local history or house histories. The 1911 census records have been released three years earlier than the scheduled 2012 date as a result of public demand for the 1911 census, which will be a key resource for family historians.*

Debra Chatfield, Marketing Manager at findmypast.com, says: '"We're delighted that the final records from the 1911 census have been published online including the military records and the records for Wales, the Isle of Man and Channel Islands. We hope people of all ages will gain a huge amount of valuable information about their ancestors by consulting the records and that they'll discover new chapters of their family history that they previously knew very little or nothing about."

Oliver Morley, Director of Customer and Business Development at The National Archives, commented: "It's wonderful to see that so many people are discovering a new passion for family history through the 1911 census. Bringing this project to completion has been one of the most exciting events for us this year, and to know that so many people have been able to access part of their personal history online shows how valuable it can be to make these records available via the web."

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