Posting Census Information

[Sue Mackay]

Many sites - both pay-per-view and free sites - claim copyright over the layout of information displayed and also publish terms and conditions of use. Many people use these sites and do not look at any of this. The result is that they post messages in which they simply copy and paste information. This is a breach of copyright and will not be tolerated by the moderators.

However, provided something is re-written in your own words and the census reference given, then copyright restrictions do not apply and the information may be posted. In the case of the census returns for England and Wales, the originals are held at The National Archives and are subject to Crown Copyright. Crown Copyright on census returns has been waived, provided the full census reference is given and TNA is acknowledged. That acknowledgment is given in a header at the top of this forum.

It is always good practice to quote the full census reference, as this will enable others to check the original. By full census reference we mean the following:

For 1841
Class - HO 107, piece, book, folio, page
e.g. HO 107/507 book 4 folio 32 page 4

For 1851-1901
Class - HO 107 (or RG 9, 10, 11, 12 or 13), piece, folio, page
e.g. 1851 - HO 107/1498 folio 32 page 57
e.g. 1861 - RG 9/678 folio 32 page 15

For 1911
Class - RG 14, piece number (PN), schedule number (SN). The rest of the reference is not required.
e.g. RG 14/26825 SN99