1921 Census release today

I think the advice to get the best out of the 1921 census is to use the advanced search, not the basic one. You can put in more info then.

Sarnia Yes, report it for editing. They don't know that there is a mistake until someone with a birth certificate tells them.

If the transcribing is done the same way as it was when I was a volunteer transcribing for FreeBMD, there are presets that pop up when you start typing a placename, for you to select one. If "St Andrews" triggered one of those presets, the transcriber may have selected St Andrews, Fife instead of St Andrews, Guernsey. It is easily done.

The FreeBMD method was to have at least two volunteers doing each page, so if their versions didn't match then that page would be flagged up to a supervisor to correct. If the 1921 census used paid transcribers, perhaps they didn't want to double the cost.

I don't think you need a subscription to Find My Past to view the 1921 Census. Just pay £3.50 per original, don't waste money buying the transcriptions. That is certainly not expensive for the cost of transcribing and the amount of work involved. If you begrudge paying that then just wait until it becomes part of the Find My Past subscription. I don't think Ancestry will get the 1921 Census for about 10 years.

Germanshepherdsmum

I don’t think you’re being unreasonable. I’m disappointed after not having to pay to see things on Ancestry, only my sub. That’s where I looked at the 1939 Register. I’ve found a couple of people on the 1921 but also a good few red herrings and decided I was paying too much for not the results I was looking for. The search facility hasn’t turned out to be very good for me and my pocket!

I'm glad it's not just me then. I have always used Ancestry up till now and found it easier to navigate. £2.50 & £3.50 here and there soon add up. Thanks for your reply.

I don’t think you’re being unreasonable. I’m disappointed after not having to pay to see things on Ancestry, only my sub. That’s where I looked at the 1939 Register. I’ve found a couple of people on the 1921 but also a good few red herrings and decided I was paying too much for not the results I was looking for. The search facility hasn’t turned out to be very good for me and my pocket!

I have done some family research on the 1921 census and found some glaring errors on the transcripts. When I have paid the £2.50 to view this and found the mistakes I have then paid a further £3.50 to view the original. It seems that the errors, human or computer, have happened on completing the transcript. It shows my Dad being born in St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland when his birth certificate shows St. Andrews, Guernsey, Channel Islands. I appreciate mistakes can be made, especially on a mammoth task like this but do I need to report it for editing?

AIBU to be disappointed in FMP and access to the 1921 census, maybe I didn't read enough about it, or even read through this thread. I always found subscribing to Ancestry and the accessibility of all the censuses they have, far more straightforward than what FMP have to offer. I paid for one month for what I believed to be access the 1921 census, but only in a very limited way, it shows who you will see on that form, but then a further amount is required for viewing the actual form. Additionally, I have put a few names in the search relating to 1921, then found nothing on them but when I put in the name of their spouse saw that they were actually listed alongside that person.

I haven't even attempted the 1939 census anyone had some success with that, I imagine once again there is a further charge ?

If anyone has rellies in the USA they might want to know the 1950 USA census is being released this April!!
www.archives.gov/news/articles/1950-census-access

Oh, credits! I’d completely forgotten that that is how you bought access to the census. I remember all that now, watching to see how many credits you had left and wondering why it was so complicated.

Ah, I was only with Ancestry back then.
I’m bracing myself for the release of the Scottish census on Scotlandspeople. They have excellent records but you have to buy credits for everything.

Just to add to previous post, later on the 1911 Census fees were abolished and it became available on subscription on both Ancestry and Find My Past as it does to this day.

I am a fanatical record keeper! I just checked and found the following:
The 1911 Census was released early in Jan 2009 because it was before the Census Act 1920 and a loophole allowed it to be issued before 100 years. Although not personal information about whether they were lunatics etc. so that column was blocked out at first.

On 16 Jan 2009 I purchased 600 credits on Find My Past costing £49.95 to see 20 households and it cost 30 credits per household. So it was £2.49 per household in 2009. That would be the original image not a transcription.

So it was not available through subscription, you had to pay per household, as you do now. And it was also Find My Past who issued the 1911 Census.

(As you have probably already realised.)

I’m a complete numpty Calistemon!?

Elegran did understand (perhaps she's used to my typos!) ?

Calistemon, given the questions asked on the last census we completed, would you really want all and sundry to have access to it in 10 years?

Just seen this GSM and it was a typo!

It should be 100 (One Hundred) years ?

Yes if you have an Ancestry sub all the info is free to view. I had both until recently when I decided they weren’t much use to me now I’ve got further back in time. I was going to reinstate the FMP sub for the 1921 census until I found out that would only get me 10% off.

David Olusoga! :swoon: That’s an incredible video, Chestnut. How complicated it is and the sheer quantity of matter to process.

I didn’t know the 1911 one has been FOC on Ancestry, GSM. Istr paying for information from it but I’ve always had a FMP subscription as it’s been more useful to me.

I thought I'd posted this but I hadn't. Here is the official video showing you how they did the transcribing:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdkpePDervc

I agree that a huge amount of work was involved but as far as I remember when Ancestry released the 1911 census access was free if you had an Ancestry subscription. If you have a FMP subscription you just get 10% off.

There’s a fascinating account in this genealogy newsletter of how they digitised the latest census. That’s why it isn’t free - it takes a lot of (wo)manpower to make it available! There are 28,000 volumes to go through.

www.lostcousins.com/newsletters2/midjan22news.htm

Chestnut

M0nica On the other side of the coin, my father was also illegitimate but we all knew that. He would have loved to see the 1921 Census to find out where he was aged 3. So releasing it earlier would be wonderful for people who wish to know about their early years.

I have already posted in this thread that the Census Act 1920 forbids by law the release of census information before 100 years, and that will never change. This was promised to the people at the time and if that promise were broken then this would affect the census information we give today. People now are giving their details on the promise of 100 year closure.

Exactly! It doesn't matter how useful/desirable it would be to people now. I'd love the 1951 census to be published, but it won't happen in my lifetime unless I live to nearly 100.

People need to know that promises will be kept, so that they are confident about providing accurate details.

M0nica On the other side of the coin, my father was also illegitimate but we all knew that. He would have loved to see the 1921 Census to find out where he was aged 3. So releasing it earlier would be wonderful for people who wish to know about their early years.

I have already posted in this thread that the Census Act 1920 forbids by law the release of census information before 100 years, and that will never change. This was promised to the people at the time and if that promise were broken then this would affect the census information we give today. People now are giving their details on the promise of 100 year closure.

Happysexegenarian I think bringing the release dates down from 100 to 75 would not be advisable. When this rule was introduced, if you made it to adulthood, life expectancy was in the 60s. Now more and more people are living into their 90s and may well have secrets about their birth or early childhood that they would prefer were not revealed until after they died.

We only discovered my grandfather was born illegitimate, long after his death. The story of his early life that he told was essentially the one he had written for himself on his army recruitment form when he signed up, aged 17.

He had a successful career, including being commissioned as an army oficer, from the ranks and receiving the OBE and other honours. Much of this may not have happened had his illegitimacy been known, at a time when such things mattered, and to have this suddenly published in the last decade of his life and for his children to know in his lifetime, could be humiliating and distressing.

Happysexagenarian Yes, I've done battle in a few graveyards but I never spent much time on microfiches as I thought these were too difficult and I didn't have the patience. Luckily, this was the 1990s and things started to go online so I got out of doing them! I think today's researchers have no idea how slow this all was. It was exciting to find just one thing. Today they can go online and do someone's whole life, birth, marriage, death and all their censuses in an afternoon. That then links up with their spouse and children straight away, it's all so fast.
Mind you, I still think it's essential to buy birth and marriage certificates, they often verify parents etc. I don't think many people seem to get them now which probably explains all the errors.