Site features at launch
We expect the site to be very busy at launch, and so we have taken a number of measures to make sure that as many people as possible can get their searches completed successfully.
The first is that we have deliberately restricted some of the search functions on the site, meaning that the search is not as flexible as it will be later on - please see our separate post on the extra search functionality that will be ‘unlocked’ after launch.
Secondly, we are only allowing users to download original pages, rather than view them directly on the website - an in-page viewer will be switched on shortly after launch.
Thirdly, only one image will be available at launch: the principal side of the original household (or institution) page. Most searches have up to seven associated images, which will be made available to you shortly after launch. These extra images are included in the cost (30 credits) of the original page so you will not need to pay extra to view them once available. The images include the rear of the household form and images from the Enumerators’ books (akin to images from earlier censuses but with more detail and in full colour). Please see our separate post about the extra images - they are really rather exciting and unique to the 1911 Census!
During launch, if the site becomes exceptionally busy, we will also restrict the number of new people entering the site. We want to allow the people who are already using the site to complete their searches rather than make the site impossibly slow for everybody. We have built the site to withstand a very large (but not infinite) number of visitors, so if you find that you are not being allowed in, please bear with us.
We call this ‘velvet roping’ - much as you would restrict access to a building to large numbers of visitors to ensure the comfort of those inside, we will try to make sure that the experience of those searching is not overwhelmed by new visitors if the site becomes very busy. Real-time service updates can be found on this blog, which we advise you to check frequently for the latest news.
Obviously, we will ‘unlock’ the powerful search features, switch on image viewers and add the extra images as soon as possible after launch and let you know by email and via this blog when we have done this. We cannot commit to specific dates for this yet, so please check here for the latest news or sign up for our newsletter (in the “My Account” area on the website).
January 13th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
Its says the England & Wales 1911 census is now available. How come none of the Welsh counties are on there then????
January 15th, 2009 at 12:22 am
I am getting the following when trying to access the web site http://www.1911census.co.uk/ from Australia:-
Content Encoding Error
The page you are trying to view cannot be shown because it uses an invalid or unsupported form of compression.
The page you are trying to view cannot be shown because it uses an invalid or unsupported form of compression.
* Please contact the website owners to inform them of this problem.
I get this in Firefox and IE.
January 20th, 2009 at 7:33 pm
I have been trying now since Sunday to view/download an image but keep getting the “Sorry were busy” message. I bought 60 credits on Saturday and viewed one image, but feel I may never be able to redeem my last 30 credits before they expire. I do hope this is not a scam - I have been trying at extraordinarliy unsocialbe hours - how busy can it be !!
January 27th, 2009 at 8:40 am
It would be very helpful to have the ability to see more that the 20-22 person search results per page that you get at the moment.
Is it possible to get a choice, e.g., 50, 100, 500, ALL?
January 27th, 2009 at 9:48 am
@John: we’re looking into this at the moment.
January 30th, 2009 at 11:30 pm
I think the census entry I need to see covers more than one page - only servants listed with the 3 month old child that I am interested in. Can anyone tell me how I will know if this is the case? Will there be an obvious annotation on the screen when I look at the original page that I have located? I wondered if I should click on previous household, but don’t want to spend 30 credits unnecessarily.