UPDATE: Now fixed (16/01/09 12:36)
Thanks to the poster who pointed out that some of the links to the 1911 site in Google search results are pointing to broken pages - we are getting this fixed now.
If you came to the 1911census site and got a “broken” page, click here to go to the 1911 homepage.
The first half-day of the census launch is going well so far.
As of 1pm, family historians have performed 925,000 searches on the 1911 Census website.
brightsolid Online Publishing (including findmypast.com) is delighted to confirm that the England & Wales 1911 Census will be made available to the public tomorrow at http://www.1911census.co.uk.
Please see the other posts on this blog for notes on the service and counties available at launch.
Please find below a full list of the 36 counties available at launch. Please see our separate post on the rollout dates of the remaining counties.
If you have not already seen it, we have already posted an article on the order of scanning and rollout of the counties, click below to read it:
http://blog.1911census.co.uk/2008/12/the-order-of-scanning-and-our-unintentional-northsouth-divide/
Counties available at launch:
Counties not available for launch:
England:
Wales:
Other:
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).
We have temporarily restricted the search facilities available at launch to allow a greater number of searches to take place at the same time. As soon as we can, we will ‘unlock’ the search feature to allow you to search much more flexibly and find those elusive ancestors. Here are the main features to be unlocked.
Although there are already 36 complete counties at launch (35 if you don’t count the West Riding of Yorkshire as a county in its own right), there are more to come before the census is complete.
The counties we have released were the most heavily populated in 1911, so in terms of the percentage of the 1911 population 83% of the people included in the Census (and 88% of those in England) are available on the site at launch.
To understand the order we have been scanning the counties (and therefore the order they will become available) please read our previous post on scanning order: http://blog.1911census.co.uk/2008/12/the-order-of-scanning-and-our-unintentional-northsouth-divide/
Because of the way the pieces are ordered, those of you looking for relatives in the north of England and in Wales will have to be patient whilst we scan and transcribe the final pieces of the census. The good news is that we anticipate having the entire census complete by summer. The less good news is that we cannot give you a concrete date for when each individual county will become available (and neither can our Customer Support team!).
There’s a very good reason for this: scanning and preparing the census for publication online is a long process which is not 100% predictable. Although we have been making excellent progress to date (hence the early release of the counties so far) given that they were originally due to complete in 2011 , there are always a few unpredictable things that can delay the process. These include having to stop scanning to hoover dust out of the scanning machines, having to send pieces for conservation before they can be scanned or simple delays in moving the huge quantities of data generated from one place to another. The data for the 1911 census will take up over half a petabyte of storage - that’s the equivalent of over 50 million copies of the Yellow Pages and quite challenging to move around!
Rest assured that as soon as we have more counties to release, we will let you know immediately by email (if you are signed up to receive updates) and on this blog.
Just a quick note to remind you that you will not be able to access transcripts or images of original pages you have paid for until the site comes back online at the full launch later in 2009.
Therefore please make sure that you print out transcripts and original pages, or download them to your computer, if you want to work on them in the coming months. Everyting that you have paid for is listed in the “My Records” area.
Once the site is properly launched, you will be able to access any records used during the beta period through the “My Records” area. And of course any credits remaining on your account will be available to spend either on 1911census.co.uk or findmypast.com.
We are now reaching the end of the beta period for the 1911census.co.uk site. Tomorrow will be the last day that the site will be available for use. Unfortunately no more counties will be added at this point so we hope that you have enjoyed using what has been available over Christmas.
The full site launch in 2009 will include many more additional counties. Thank you for the huge volume of feedback you have given us and for your many comments - we will be analysing all of these in depth.
Our best wishes for a happy 2009 and continued success in researching your family history.
The 1911census.co.uk team
We’ve added a link to the feedback survey on the right of the page. It takes about 10 minutes to complete the survey but provides invaluable feedback for the team here, so please do complete one.