Federation Of Family History Societies

1851 Census Project

 

Do you get annoyed with errors in the online censuses? Much of these censuses, other than the 1881 census, have been transcribed overseas and despite what must be experienced staff there are inevitable differences. We know that many of us have found alternative transcriptions of the census have a value in their own right as where one index has difficulties another index gets it right.

Many family history societies have previously indexed the 1851 census in various ways. These have been in many different formats ranging from surname-only indexes to full transcripts and these have been published in booklets, fiche and CD-ROM with several being available on the previous Federation's FamilyHistoryOnline web service.

In this project, run in 2008, many societies that are members of the Federation of Family History Societies and findmypast.co.uk worked together to produce a full index to selected county sections of the 1851 census, the aim being to allow searching by virtually all fields, including occupation, age and sex. This index will be connected to images of the pages from the census enumerator's original books to allow the researcher to check the transcription. (Be aware, however, that not all societies took part in this project nor were there sufficient volunteers to cover many areas which are being completed by paid workers overseas).

A large number of volunteers in the UK and abroad worked at home using their own computers and broadband connection. Accessing the specially dedicated site set up by Find My Past, they were able to use a page which presented the well designed 'transcription tool' as illustrated below - showing the image of the census page, and the spreadsheet-like grid where all the information was entered.

Societies receive a small payment every time someone views the results of a search in an area that's been indexed by a volunteer working on behalf of that society. This will be an important source of revenue for societies as sales of their other versions of the census have declined..

Many people have said that your education as a Family Historian cannot be complete unless you've done some transcribing as only then will you appreciate the strengths and weaknesses of the original records. It is certain that those who took part in this work will wholeheartedly agree with these words! Thank you to those voluntary transcribers and co-ordinators who took part in this project, and especially to Gillian Stevens and Chad Hanna of the FFHS FamilyHistoryOnline team for their valiant efforts in supervising and co-ordinating the project. Congratulations to all on work so well done.

findmypast.co.uk are aiming to have most of the 1851 census online by the end of the year.