Searching census info online

If you're researching your family tree, there are many different resources at your disposal - from contacting surviving family members by phone or email to viewing historical documents archived online. These include records of births, marriages and deaths, as well as census records that can be invaluable pieces of the puzzle if certain ancestors are proving particularly difficult to track down.



National censuses are now taken every 10 years in the UK, but intervals were more sporadic in the past. While it may not always be possible to access census records from long ago in history to find out exactly who lived where, records from the last century or so have been meticulously stored online by archivists, ready and waiting to be pored over by historians and history buffs alike.



Census records are public documents and only released 100 years after they were originally recorded in order to protect the privacy of those within them. Censuses are important documents, not only for allowing local governments to accurately approximate the size of a municipality, but also its distinctive make-up, and to observe changing lifestyles and habits over time.

Searching census records used to be an extremely demanding and time-consuming task that could involve lengthy visits to libraries and other council buildings, searching through indexes to find the names you're looking for. Thanks to the internet, this is no longer the case and records such as the 1911 census are readily available to be read, printed out or even searched by keyword - radically reducing the amount of time you need to spend on the activity.



If you know the names of the people you're looking for, it will then be an easy task to find these names, no matter what size of census you're dealing with. If you're not sure of their names or other details however, you should first try variations that may have occurred due to the passage of time or clerical errors.



Access to census information online is not free as archivists need to cover the costs of digitising such a large quantity of information. However, there are many ways to gain access to these documents without paying expensive admin costs, especially when you sign up to genealogy websites that include access to such material to aid your quest to discover your roots. This can be especially affordable when compared to the cost of travelling to a city where records offices are located and staying several nights in a local hotel while you read through old books.



Isla Campbell writes for a digital marketing agency. This article has been commissioned by a client of said agency. This article is not designed to promote, but should be considered professional content.