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If you could only search one record collection before becoming an Ancestry.co.uk member, which one would it be? Most of you would choose the 1911 Census – which is why we’ve made it completely free for a limited time!*
The 1911 Census is the largest and most recent of the available England & Wales census collections – and the perfect place to start discovering your family’s past. Like all UK censuses it reveals your relatives’ addresses, occupations and addresses, but it also includes extra information like how long couples had been married and how many children they’d had.
Plus, each household has its own page in the census, written in your ancestors’ original handwriting. We’ve created a special interactive viewer to bring these records to life like never before.
Most of you will have grandparents or even parents that were alive in 1911, so try searching for them first. Just type in a name, have a guess at where they lived and when they were born, and see what you can discover.
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Definitely not the 1911 census which has so many errors and omissions from ancesty’s indexes to make research problematic at the very least, London is a mess. The death index is a much better choice. For example my great grandmother is shown on the image in the 1911 census as being born in Gosport (previously Alverstoke) in Hampshire and not Gosford in your index and which is not on the screen!.
A number of early censuses have enumerators being hoodwinked by householders in various ways. Perhaps unwittingly, one line in my family changes spelling of their surname, something very common back in the 17th century. Marrying in the late 1870s one of my ancestors, born as “spelling variant A”, also SVA in 1861 Census, but as SVB in 1871 Census, elopes to London and uses SVA on his marriage lines. In the 1881 Census they are back to SVB, and stayed so thereafter!
I knew, before starting out on my enquiries, that there are six to ten variant spellings of “Hewish” – from Huyshe to Hewes, notoriously via Hughes. Forewarned is forearmed?
Overall, I agree with David. Deaths are more definitive, and may be checked with certificates.
BTW & with respect, David, try sending an “update” on the “Gos?or?” issue. Ancestry.&c DOES review these and incorporate them (provided they are backed by corroborative evidence). Transcription is a human activity and always subject to human error.
If moderation allows, and with respect, I share Mr Dunn’s frustration with certain Public Member Trees especially those who mis-identify the death of my grandmother by some 30 years. They thereby miss out a significant family tragedy and lose her widower’s second marriage completely. (These issues are dealt with in my Public (Cole Family) Tree.) Another PFT has my parents’ emigrating and dying overseas. Very creative but NOT History.
Why is the infirmity column still blocked off? When I asked when it would be visible, I was told when the census was complete.
Months ago it was visible in the original 1911 census site.
Don’t forget you can search records, build your family tree and discover more about your family history over on the main site.
- 2013
- 2012
- 2011
- 2010
The current 1911 search engine consistantly fails to find people whom I have previously found. This is very irritating. It also means, (I guess), I cannot find others for whom I have not previously found.
Also as an aside, some of the published public member trees are quite frankly , a disgrace. Obviously no cross referencing has taken place.
Roger Dunn