After 11 years and more than 2 1/2 million hours of volunteer labor, the largest census ever to be automated is now available on CD-ROM for home use.
The automated 1881 British Census, which contains information for more than 30 million individuals, was announced May 4 by the Church Family History Department. The data come from England, Wales and Scotland. (The 1881 census for Ireland does not exist.)
"The story behind this project is one of tremendous individual participation and the cooperation of literally thousands dedicated to the creation of the most complete, complex and largest census database ever created to date," said Elder D. Todd Christofferson, executive director of the Family History Department.
Begun in September 1987, the automated index is the result of a collective effort of Church-member volunteers and those from the Federation of Family History Societies in the United Kingdom.
"Every effort was made to reproduce the information as it was originally recorded by the British census-takers in 1881," Elder Christofferson said. "Even obvious errors were left to allow users to make their own evaluation of the information."
Richard E. Turley Jr., managing director of the Family History Department, said, "Each page of the census (over 1 million pages) was transferred to microfilm and photocopied." He explained that each letter and name of the census was painstakingly copied twice by transcribers, often from almost illegible photocopies or microfilm, then double-checked for accuracy. To protect the integrity of the data during this transfer of historic information, every entry was carefully evaluated a third or fourth time by trained individuals prior to entering it on computer.
Among the 30 million entries, users will find the following interesting entries along with a host of others:
Charles L. Dodgson (also known as Lewis Carroll) — "M.A. Student & Lecturer" at Oxford University.
Joseph R. (Rudyard) Kipling — a 15-year-old attending school in Devon.
Master Winston Churchill — 6-year-old son of Lord Randolph Churchill, Member of Parliament.
The census is published on 25 compact discs, including an eight-disc national index and viewer, that allow users to quickly search across the entire database of more than 30 million names. To make the census indexes more manageable and easier to use, the data have been divided into eight regions: East Anglia, Great London, Midlands, North Central, Northern Borders and Miscellany, Southwestern, Wales and Monmouth, and Scotland.
"Users will be delighted to find that the census includes enumerations for the Royal Navy in 1881. That means it lists all people living, working or traveling on a boat or ship at the time the census was taken," said David Rencher, president of the Federation of Genealogical Societies. "The Miscellany Region even includes people who lived in 'poor houses,' mental institutions, workhouses, schools, hospitals and other non-traditional residences when the census was counted."
The CD-ROM includes the FamilySearch Resource File Viewer 2.0, which allows powerful and flexible search capabilities. Users can tag and make notes for records and download the data into RTF (Rich Text Format).
The census is available for purchase in its entirety or by region through the distribution outlets of the Church. The cost for the entire census (25 CDs) is $33 (U.S. currency). To order, call 1-801-240-1126; 1-800-537-5971 in the United States or order on line at www.familysearch.org.
Here are system requirements for the product:
Pentium processor (or equivalent)
Windows 95, 98 or NT 4.0+
8 MB RAM minimum (16 MB recommended)
CD-ROM drive (8x recommended)
SVGA monitor with 256-color-capable video card
25 MB hard disk space
For more information, contact Family History Support via e-mail at fhdfhsup@ldschurch.org or telephone 1-801-240-2584 or 1-800-346-6044.
