Trying out the 1911 census
I was invited on Friday to try out the latest beta of the 1911 census website run by FindMyPast. The tempation was too great to resist, so I headed over to the site.
I searched first for my grandfather Henry Hedges, who would have been 14 in the census. As it is in beta, the site doesn’t have all the counties available, even so it still returned four Henry Hedges’ aged 13-15. Unlike the 1901 Census results, there is no indication of where the person is born, so you have to buy a view of the transcription to see if it the correct one.
When the 1901 census was released, nearly 7 years ago, it cost 50 pence to see a transcription and 75 pence to see an actual image. If you buy the largest package of credits for the 1911 census available, it will cost you 10 credits (80 pence) to see a transcription and 30 credits (£2.40) to see an image.
Needless to say after a couple of hours of searching I had exhausted my 280 credits (£24.95), with next to nothing to show for the outlay. The thought of potentially repeating this for every person in my family tree, with the same results is just not financially viable.
I did find my grandmother on my mum’s side, and have a copy of the actual household return. It is different from previous censuses in that the original household returns have been scanned not the enumerators log. This means that I was looking at my great grandparents’ handwriting, Carrie Moulden I think. Much as I want to search for my relatives, I can see me waiting until this is available on one of the subscriptions rather than pay-per-view. For me this is just too expensive as it stands.
Tags:1911 census,FindMyPast
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December 29th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
I certainly agree, the 1911 census is a little expensive, I used up the remaining credits from my FindMyPast account as well as the 280 I purchased!
December 29th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
Hi Nikki-ann,
Thanks for dropping by. Looking at your blog, it seems you had a bit more success searching than I did. I think from the FindMyPast email advertising subscriptions, it will be available on their subscriptions later next year.
Regards,
Ian
December 29th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
Hi,
I managed to find 3 households from one line of my family and a couple of others. It was quite interesting, although I would have loved to have found my Welsh lines, but they’ll have to wait until the proper release.
Nikki-ann.
April 28th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
Hello Ian
I gave them three months before asking last week when the 1911 Census was going to come through the Find my Past Explorer sub. as promised.
I have had exactly the same responses as you. I am glad you have the wording of the original offer because I could not find the pertinent e-mail in my saved files.
I am thinking about approaching my local Trading Standards Office and/or “Which”.
Have you taken this any further.
Ros Batchelor
April 28th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
Hi Ros,
I’ve answered on the other post: http://family.ijhedges.com/2009/02/07/misled-by-findmypast/comment-page-1/#comment-1066
Regards,
Ian
May 24th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
I’ve just found your site through a Baebes link …. but to get to the point I assume you know that you can view the 1911 census free of charge at Kew – all you have pay for is the hard copies which are A3 sized.
May 24th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
Thanks Kev,
Yes, I did know that, but unfortunately it isn’t very practical for me to get down to Kew to view it. Especially as my research time tends to be late evenings and alike.
Thanks for the comment, as I hadn’t thought to mention the availability at Kew.
Regards,
Ian
May 24th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Hi Ian…..
Next time I’m going down I’ll let you know and if I can help just say the word.
Kev
May 25th, 2009 at 7:45 am
Thank you for the kind offer Kev