BLACKSMITHING-L Archives

Archiver > BLACKSMITHING > 2002-01 > 1010066661


From: "Diana Boothe" <>
Subject: [BLACKSMITHING] FYI--CENTURY-OLD UK CENSUS GOES ONLINE
Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 08:15:43 -0600


January 2, 2002 Posted: 10:31 AM EST (1531 GMT)

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Modern technology has given Britons a glimpse
of life at the turn of the last century with the online publication of the
national census for 1901.

Doomed Antarctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott, silent movie actor Charlie
Chaplin, nurse Florence Nightingale and "The Lord of the Rings" author
J.R.R. Tolkien are among notable citizens whose details are recorded on the
census.

A spokeswoman for the Public Records Office -- which on Wednesday made the
entire 1901 census for England and Wales available online at
www.census.pro.gov.uk -- said the site had taken two years to complete and
would be an invaluable resource for genealogists and historians.

"The database contains details of over 32 million individuals," she told BBC
radio. "It is a snapshot of the family at the time -- ages, place of birth,
occupations and also...who else was in the household at the time."

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.

As well as the famous names, it also lists 90,000 "lunatics, imbeciles and
feeble-minded people."

Project manager Alison Webster said census returns were the Public Record
Office's most popular documents. By mid-morning the site was temporarily
unavailable due to heavy demand.

The Public Records 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, she said.

This thread: