A chance to take part in BBC Two’s ‘Reel History of Britain’

I’ve was in touch with the BBC recently regarding a new TV series, which sounds right up my street!  Later this year Melvyn Bragg will be presenting a brand new series for BBC Two in association with the British Film Institute, telling the social history of modern Britain through archive film footage. Over the 20-part series they… Read more

1911 – Your monthly update

Hopefully you remembered to complete your census form on Sunday? The 2011 Census dominated the headlines over the weekend – apparently over one million households completed their returns online, showing just how much life has changed over the past century. We were hoping to have some news of our own to share with you –… Read more

FREE census access – technical problems resolved- plus extension until the end of the day on Monday.

Firstly I’d like to say that we’re very sorry for the difficulties some people have had this morning trying to access the free indexes. I’m pleased to say that we have now resolved the technical issues which caused this. This was a result of problems with some of our servers (although not all), which explains why some… Read more

FREE census access – today only!

Today is the day! Don’t forget to log in to Ancestry.co.uk to use all our UK census indexes, from England, Wales and Scotland, completely FREE. If you’ve just started tracing your family tree, this is your chance to kick-start your search for names and dates. And if you’ve already uncovered several generations, see if you can… Read more

The history of the census

By Ian White from the Census Team at the Office for National StatisticsThe census records in England and Wales, available for family history research, go back to 1841 – though the history of the census goes back much further than that. The concept of the census was first proposed in 1753, but was regarded then with… Read more

From Archive to Web: Getting a census online

This post was written by PETER GOODWIN, Manager of Preservation Imaging Ancestry.co.uk Putting a collection of historic records online can be a complex process.  We make millions of records available online every year. But just how do we do it? The process is to a large extent dictated by the condition and format of any… Read more

Can you find the famous person in this 1851 census record?

We’ve updated our 1841 Census!

As a tribute to our recent update to the 1841 census in which many of the schedules from Cumberland and north Lancashire have been added, it is interesting to consider the oddities of the first national census in which every individual was named, and therefore the first to be really useful to family historians nationwide.… Read more

Member Story – “My great-grandmother ran off with a lodger”

Posted on behalf of Mike Sheldon, Leicester I found out my grandfather was the product of an illicit affair and eventual bigamous marriage. This led me to some incredible discoveries further back in my family tree. I knew my great-grandmother, Eliza, became a mother at 16 and married at 17. However, when I found her… Read more

FREE census access – 27th March

Get ready! To mark Census Day 2011, we’re letting you access all our UK census record indexes, from England, Wales and Scotland, completely FREE, for 24 hours! 27th March will be a historic day, as we all come together to complete the 2011 National Census. While you’re filling in details of your age, birthplace and… Read more