After two years of preparation, the British Public Record Office
released the 1901 UK census results on its Web site on 2 January.
Within minutes, anxious genealogists and others who are seeking information
about UK residents from over a century ago overloaded the site. The
Web site virtually ground to a halt as more than a million users
tried to log on and trace their family history during its first three
hours.
The Public Record Office (PRO) had doubled the number of servers
in anticipation of the demand. However, the 1901 census was placed
online at 9:00 AM GMT. At noon, a PRO spokeswoman said, "We
have had more than a million hits since it went online. The system
is overloading and we ask people to be patient. All we can suggest
is to keep trying."
The census was conducted a few weeks after the death of Queen Victoria,
as Britain was beginning a new era under the rule of King Edward
VII. The 1901 UK census lists the names, ages, addresses, and mental
health of more than 32 million people. It provides the first public
look at details that have been extracted from 1.5 million pages of
handwritten census returns for residents of England and Wales. Alison
Webster, Public Record Office project manager, said: "The census
returns are our most popular documents and making them available
on the internet means that anyone can access information on their
ancestors, the history of their house and their local area, as well
as gaining an insight into the social and economic conditions of
the time. All this without the trouble and expense of traveling to
London. We hope this will be the first of many censuses to be digitized
and plan to put the 1891 census returns online."
The 1901 census forms asked respondents for their name, address,
age, and occupation. The forms also asked them to list the state
of their mental health, reporting whether they are deaf and dumb,
blind, lunatic, an imbecile, or feeble-minded. More than ninety thousand
individuals are listed as "lunatics, imbeciles, or feeble-minded
people."
The 1901 census includes the name of the Queen Mother, then eight
months old. She is listed as Elizabeth Angela Bowes-Lyon, with her
address listed as Walden, Herts. A spelling mistake or poor handwriting
appears to have misspelled her middle name with an "i," spelling
it as Angelia.
Others found in the 1901 UK census include comedian Charlie Chaplin,
listed as a "music hall artiste," while legendary cricketer
W.G. Grace is described as a "physician and secretary of the
London County Cricket Club." Other famous names to appear include
French artist Claude Monet, author H.G. Wells, author J.R.R. Tolkien,
Antarctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott, and nurse Florence Nightingale.
Of course, data transcription is never perfect, and some enumerators’ shortcuts
don’t make the job easier. Genealogist Jeanne Bunting points
out, "If anyone is researching the name DITTO, there are 39
of them in the index to the 1901 census… . One of them was
even born in Ditto Ditto!!" Jeanne’s experience proves
that there is never a substitute for original records. Luckily, digitized
images of the original forms are also available online at the Public
Record Office site.
Users logging onto the site will be able to search under several
categories, including name, place, and address. You can search by
first name, last name, gender, or age (plus or minus a number of
years). An advanced search also allows the user to search by marital
status, occupation, and relation to head of the family. There are
also searches for locations, institutions (hospitals, barracks),
and maritime vessels. For a cost of 50 pence (about 72 cents in U.S.
currency), users can look at the transcribed details from the census
return. Another 50 pence buys the details of all other people listed
at that address. You can also look at a digital image of the census
return for 75 pence. The money raised will help to fund the digitizing
of other censuses. The Public Record Office has already begun work
on building a similar site for the 1891 census, which is expected
to be available to the public next year.
If you have ancestors or other family living in England or Wales
during 1901, you will want to look at these online transcribed records.
English and Welsh residents may also be interested to find who lived
in their house in 1901.
With so many genealogists trying to access this site, you may find
the site to be unavailable. In fact, at the time these words are
being written, a disclaimer on the site says, "Due to overwhelming
demand the technical project team for the 1901 Census site has had
to place access restrictions to the site. This will mean that some
users will not be able to currently access the service." That’s
no surprise to experienced online genealogists, as the same thing
happened when the LDS FamilySearch.org site first appeared online,
as well as with the Ellis Island immigration database. Both of these
sites were virtually unusable in the first week or two of operation
as they were flooded with genealogists seeking information. Both
eventually settled down and are now easily accessible at any hour
of the day or night. I suspect the same will soon be true of the
1901 UK census results on the British Public Record Office’s
Web site.
Additional Information
Not many things can help stir a family history hunters heart more than the first release of the 1901 census. But, let's not forget about the other records out there. You can piece more and more of your family tree together by looking at Birth, Marriage and Death records. These are invaluable records that can, so to speak, help put flesh on the bones of your long gone ancestors. Try visiting http://www.uk-bmd.org.uk for more information
1901 Census Return
Having trouble reading
the census columns or
recording information? View a sample Census form:
(Acrobat Reader Required)
1901 Census News
Read news releases and articles concerning the launch of the 1901
Census Online:
