Genealogy Chat

Thanks again, folks! MARTIN. The CDs you referred to - do they work on Macintosh, and where do you buy them? MICHELLE. I wish I could use my local library, but I'm not researching locally. I live in South Devon and my family roots are all in the Pancras, Holborn and Clerkenwell areas of London (or Middlesex as it was then) and I don't think our little library would cover there, but it may be worth asking, so thanks for the tip. STUART. I though the Latin plural of the masculine ending of -us was -i, thus Censi - at least it was when I was at school!! (I only did one year but I can still decline masculine and feminine words - once learnt, it tends to stick!!)

my local library has local census from 1841 - 1891, plus selection of other bit and peices. Try calling the library and see what they have to offer. I did and they are very helpful. Shelli

Re Spelling - Actually both Census and Censuses are correct. Censuses is the plural of the English noun and Census is the plural of the Latin noun. You will find them used interchangably in many situations, although perhaps Censuses is strictly correct in English contexts as with other Latin and foreign words they can be included in informal sentences.

You can usually find 1841, 1851 etc in local libraries. You can get many parts of the country for 1841 and 1891 on CD-ROM. Others are in production. See ... http://www.mit.edu/~dfm/genealogy/census-chart.html 1851 (and some other years) is indexed. You can buy copies for most areas on either fiche or printed in booklets. Search the local FHS WWW site. If you are only interested in a smallish village then it is not that expensive to buy a copy of the fiche direct from the PRO. You can always take the fiche along to your local library and ask to use their machine if you do not have your own reader. You can go to a LDS Family Research Centre and they will order any film/fiche that you want. I believe there is only a modest charge and they hold it for about a month. I live in the Highland so have no access to any local research facilities. I have just had to buy CD's and occasionally have a trip South. I have twice hired a researcher to do some work in Kew for me. This gave me my grandfather's place and date of birth which led to a whole string of finds. So it was worth the cost of the work. Also try WWW seaches with a mixture of names, place names and things like "family history". It is always surprising what turns up on the WWW! Martin Briscoe

Thanks for your replies everyone. But what happened to 1841, 1851, 1861 and 1871? I suppose they're the ones done in "bits" that someone referred to. I assume they are on the microfiches in London, as Monica says, but I can't get up there!!! Would a main city library (Plymouth or Exeter) hold them too? I'll try a few Google searches and see what comes up.

I had trouble with Ancestry. There is also the freeCen site on roots web its not up and running at the moment but the search engine is due to go online this month(fingers crossed) you can check how the transcriptions are going or volunteer to become a transcriber.

I've been quite successful with the 1891 census at Familyhistoryonline,fees start at 5p, depending on how many names are available,but it tells you how much and you decide for yourself. June,Preston.Lan.

P.S. Someone wrote that England and Wales 1891 Census is available at ancestry.co.uk So far they have not done all of the country but there is a list on the site. At some point, when they cover some areas that interest me, I am going to have to decide whether to pay up. But I am reluctant to give a Continuous Credit Card Authority to a US company which, as far as I am aware, still has no UK telephone number. These are not the same as Direct Debits and can be hard to stop. Martin Briscoe

1901 Census is 50p per record if you use their transcription but it is better to go for the image of the whole page at 75p. You very occasionally might have to pay for two pages if it wraps over on to a new page but you are not relying on the someone else's interpretation of the entry. It is also sometimes interesting to see the rest of the page and not unknown to find another family member living nearby. You can save a copy of the page on your computer - I attach it to the source details in my family history program (another reason for using a good family tree program!). Martin Briscoe

the 1837 is online very good to Sue

Mary, 1881 cesus is free via Family Search. 1901 is 50p per record accessed. According to the Oxford English Dictionary the plural of census is censuses (not census as suggested by someone else).

all the census are free to view in London at family Records on microfilm and many libraries will have their local ones free to view on microfilm

A number of counties are available for the 1891 census on line at Ancestry(.)com. this is a pay site. Bob

There are also quite a number of censuses for different parts of the country online. These have been transcribed by local volunteers. For example, I know of some Caernarfonshire & Derbyshire censues online. Always try a WWW search with a few surnames, places and something like "census" and see what you get. Also check in GENUKI. Martin Briscoe

Mary asked if the web site was free or not. I have not seen an answer to that part of her question. Pauline Hill.

hi 1901 cenus is on line see links page 1881 is on line at familysearch also on links page i think bits of the others may be on line but are being done by respective parishes\local history societies. heather

Would some kind person post a reply giving details of exactly WHICH censuses (censi? What IS the plural?!) are available online, from which websites and whether free or not. I'm in a bit of a muddle about them all. The lucky folk in USA seem to have dozens of them online on Ancestry! Many thanks Mary, Dartmouth, Devon