Do you remember completing your Census form on Sunday 21st March last year? This was a compulsory survey that is conducted every ten years. Its purpose is to help government make decisions on planning and funding public services including transport, education, and healthcare.

You may remember completing a long form asking you about everyone who was resident in your home on that Sunday in March. It was organised and managed by the Office of National Statistics and amounted to almost 50 questions. Topics included names, ages, marital status, country of birth, ethnicity, main language, state of health, qualifications, main job, and location of work for everyone resident on that day.
The data collected is put to use immediately to help government plan for the future, but the personal data is kept secret for 100 years to protect the confidentiality of individuals. Although the main purpose of the census is to help government with its planning, it has also become a useful resource for family historians wanting to trace their ancestors.
The information collected in previous census returns is released to the public after 100 years and enterprising family history websites have scanned the original documents and transcribed the data to enable family historians to trace their past relatives. Information dating back to the 1841 census is currently available on websites such as ancestry.com and findmypast.co.uk.
But the reason for this article is because the 1921 census data has just been released and is available online from findmypast.com. They are currently changing £2.50 to view a transcript and £3.50 to review an original record image. This is quite expensive, but they need to recoup their costs for scanning and transcribing data on the 38 million men, women, and children alive at that time. It will probably get cheaper in time but can be accessed free by visiting The National Archives at Kew

This enables us to view family records from 100 years ago and trace grandparents and great grandparents. To find out more visit https://www.findmypast.co.uk/1921-census where there is a short video showing how the census was brought online.

And if you want to find out about your family history there are plenty of free sources of information as well as paid for websites. https://www.familysearch.org is the largest free site with over eight billion searchable records. It is financed by The Church of Latter Day Saints but offers free access to everyone. They organise a free online conference that next takes place on the 3rd to 5th March. To register visit: https://www.familysearch.org/rootstech/next/
You can also access some of the paid for websites for free at Surrey libraries. Surrey has an arrangement with findmypast.co.uk and ancestry.com to provide free access via library computers.