FreeCen is an ambitious project aiming to provide a "free-to-view" online transcription database of the 19th century UK census returns which is fully searchable. The project is an international one and we have volunteers working all over the world on various census counties and years.

The website and database can be found https://www.freecen.org.uk

The project works on a county basis and is fully reliant on voluntary assistance.
Very basically information is taken from the census sheets and transcribed onto a spreadsheet or another programme set up specifically for FreeCen. This information ranges from full name age occupation birthplace etc for each individual.
Once a piece has been transcribed by one volunteer it is then checked by another volunteer and finally seen by a validator who resolves any outstanding queries before sending the information to the database.

We would love to hear from anyone interested in assisting with either transcription or checking. If you contact me initially with details of the area you are interested in I will put you in touch with the relevant co-ordinator. You can send me a private message or contact me at [email protected] anytime, I would love to hear from you.
All you need is a computer and some spare time, we will provide the census pages for you to work on. The 1891 census is mostly only available in microfiche format but earlier years are available in digital format (On CD).

The database is regularly updated each month and more information is becoming available all the time. However, it is an ambitious and time consuming project and we can never have too many volunteers so please get in touch soon and join us in this worthwhile effort.
Thanks Bev