Online census from TNA

[Pam Downes]

So who else has seen the news that "original documents from the 1881 census have gone online as part of the National Archives' plan to publish all censuses from 1841 to 1891".
Quoted from BBC TV Ceefax page on 3rd December 2004, which then goes on to say: "Indexes from the 1881 census have been searchable on the web site for about a year, but page images showing actual entries are now available for a charge."

The catch is that when you click 'search catalogue' on the TNA site, then census records, you eventually end up on the Ancestry.co.uk site. If you type in a name you get similar free information to that available on familysearch, but presented differently. And then you can decide to pay for the image.
The 1891 is also available, though the free information is restricted to age, county of birth and county of residence.
Cost is the usual Ancestry subscription rate (please note that VAT is also payable if you live in the EU adding approximately a tenner to the cost for a year's sub and just over a quid to the 'GBP6 for 20 images' 7-day rate).
The 7-day rate is certainly better value than that of the 1901 census and you can use it to search all the Ancestry databases - which includes the 1901! - and you get any 20
page images, not just a particular census.
One now wonders if the 1911 will be available through Ancestry and not farmed out like the 1901.

Pam Downes

[JS Lewis]

What length of time scale is (would be) envisaged before the first of these Census from 1841,51 & 61 appear on-line?

I agree it will be interesting to see if they are released via Ancestry or a 1901-esque site.
Personally I tend to stay clear of the 1901 site whenever possible, however with the 1901 Census for Wales not yet being up & running on Ancestry its sometimes a case of 'having to'.

[Pam Downes]

What length of time scale is (would be) envisaged before the first of these Census from 1841,51 & 61 appear on-line?

I agree it will be interesting to see if they are released via Ancestry or a 1901-esque site.

It doesn't say anything about the release of the 1841 - 61 census on the TNA site, but if I remember correctly from the BBC Ceefax page it said within the next two years. I would have thought that after the hassle of the 1901 census that these census will be released via Ancestry, sooner than the TNA and associated bodies trying to do it.
Because without a doubt the TNA caught a cold over that fiasco which is why I think that if the 1841-61 release goes smoothly then the 1911 release will be via Ancestry. (i.e. they can have the hassle of the mistranscriptions and the risk of the site crashing because of the high demand!)

However I may well be proved wrong on both accounts. Perhaps the TNA have only linked with Ancestry because Ancestry had already indexed the 1891 and some of the 1871, and have also linked with familysearch.org with regard to the 1881.

Pam Downes

[clive_t]

I've been thinking about giving the ancestry site a go for the £7 per 20 images deal, the only thing that puts me off is their insistance on payment by credit card.

I mean, I'm sure it's a secure site and all, it's just that when I read the 'small print' it mentioned writing to or telephoning the US office in order to cancel the subscription. I have been caught out in the past with other organisations, when attempting to cancel a "credit card direct debit" - something doesn't happen right, and the money continues to be deducted; ie lots of hassle - magnified even more by dealing with an outfit the other side of the globe.

Has anyone had problems of this nature with ancestry? Why won't they do payments by 'Switch' I wonder?

Clive

[Pam Downes]

Hi Clive,

I think that if you choose the '7 day' option that there wouldn't be any problem about 'cancelling your subscription' as it is for a specific time.
With regards to the 'Switch' card, it could be that only the UK have a card that takes payment directly from your bank account, so the company only deals with credit cards.
I'd heard tales of people having problems cancelling subscriptions so when I joined Ancestry for a trial period I printed out all the confirmation/how to cancel pages that they sent. I also cancelled after 12 days (i.e. in plenty of time!), carefully following the instructions on the previously-printed 'how to cancel' pages and I had no problems.
I would have thought that if you joined Ancestry as opposed to the US .com that you should have a UK base to reply to in order to cancel any subs, but maybe not.

Pam Downes

[FamHistAddict]

I used to have a quarterly subscription which automatically renewed. I cancelled this by e-mail and had no problems at all.

However, when the 1871 became available I had to rejoin (sad I know) and now have an annual subscription. Although this is expensive (about £75) it is only the cost of 2 census CD's. I bought all the London ones (with no index) for £205.

Sara

[David Sherriff]

I recently took up the free 14 day offer from Ancestry, and also took great care on keeping details of the Cancellation process. I cancelled after 12 days with no problems. However, there are some problems with their search engine not being able get the right information out of their data base, in accordance with my data imput. It was not as useful as I had hoped, but better than nothing.

[JS Lewis]

I have a quarterly subscription with Ancestry, & am currently into my 2nd quarter. Prior to the 2nd quarter they e-mailed me making me aware & also provide an e-mail address should I have wished to cancel.

Personally, in comparison to the costs of search's on other boards, I think Ancestry subscription is reasonable.