English Census Links

Census are really Essential for research in 19th century and early 20th

Major Update Jan 2007 and news on 1911 Dec 2008 - census data on the web keeps improving - previously I listed sites with census by decade but now many fee sites have all or most census so I am listing by site

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Census Dates and Other Information
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Excellent help files CENSUS Resources and UK Census - various sites with useful information
Abbreviations Used On Census Returns England & Wales 1841-1891

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/hitch/gendocs/index.html#HOME1851 Enumerator Instructions

Basically the available Census fall into blocks
1831 and before
1841 to 1901 most of page is about there decades
1911 see bottom of page

National Archives: Historical Streets Project - new from TNA in 2009 - may help you find streets and especially a census reference
Jan 2012 TNA says Your archives will disappear soon - when it does try Discover our collections | The National Archives

1831 and Before
1821 and 1831 census for some places such as Marylebone are around on fiche etc - basically a list of household - try a web search -
Westminster City Archives information sheet on Pre-1841 Censuses and Lists of Inhabitants relating to Westminster. http://www.westminster.gov.uk
Free census availability
1881 Census LDS - very useful - so quick to use - when I find possible married couples I check 1881 census for them as in LDS you can put wife in main box and head of household in special box - otherwise Ancestry 1881 is probably easier to search as you can use wildcard and town of birth. ( there is a CD version which also covers Scotland and allows for address search here is a suggestion for Address Search on On Line 1881 census at LDS which I did before Ancestry made address search available - it sometimes works for other census.	Ancestry also has 1881 census with images (payment) the Index search and household details are free http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/census/ Ancestry search allows wildcard and also place born more easily than LDS - so I find in Ancestry and then switch to LDS for the transcription
FreeCEN http://freecen.rootsweb.com/ UK Census - a volunteer effort to transcribe for surname lookup and it is free - (more volunteers welcome)	I don't know if you will find yours have been transcribed but worth a check - very good for Cornwall
http://www.census1891.com/ where 1891 is being transcribed by street in London -	well worth a check - the transcribed names do not come up in google I tried. -
Various local FHS and Parishes may have data available - try a web search say in www.google.com - especially some villages - try that first before paying other sites.	for example Oxford FHS will conduct a search for across all census and parish registers on their own transcription
If you have an interest outside London do web searches (google) and look at Genuki - I found census coverage for a Devon village	try a search such as nameofplace 1851 genuki
Commercial sites 1841-1921 are on sites which are subscription or pay to view The main ones with an almost total coverage of England and usually Wales	Sometimes Libraries and Societies have access to these sites The census for some areas are lost - see suggestion on PRO National Archive etc for how to find out which are missing
Census data has been around for some time on fiche and then CD - but you needed to know address or you spent ages browsing. Around 2004 following success of LDS 1881 and TNA 1901 other decades started to appear on line	1841 does not have as much personal information as later decades - age is rounded and birth place is Yes/No in county see Other Information
Surname Variations - an excellent web site http://www.imagepartners.co.uk/Thesaurus also shows if variation is on 1881	The sites below are in essence different to the CDs because people have transcribed the names so we can search by name - do you know how many spelling variations of my name there are. The transcribers do a great job but the handwriting can be very hard.

A census transcriptions supplied by a friend 1851 Census Regents Park Adult Orphan Institution from Sally Taylor

19th century Britain goes online http://www.histpop.org/ohpr/servlet/ Histpop - The Online Historical Population Reports Website does have samples census forms and you can see originals in colour whereas the versions we see are B&W which may make some data like ages hard to read.