Genealogy Chat

Can some one tell me where I can find the free 1881 census please.

Thank you :-)

You can find it right here on Genes. Transcript only is free. You have to pay if you wish to see the image.

It's also on Family Search and other sites.

I wouldn't use the one on GR - although as promised, I get a free transcription of the guy I look up, I **DON'T** get to see his household for free, so I've no idea who his wife & kids are. I would recommend Ancestry or FS if his h/h has any interest to you.

Oops - I just noticed that you have to pay to look at the transcript for other family members on GR. So not a good idea. :-(

thank you all x

First transcribed and published free by The Mormons:

https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/England_and_Wales_1881_Census_(FamilySearch_Historical_Records)

https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1321821

The 1881 census for England and Wales.

Find my Past gives free transcript

The only free transcript is the one published by the Family Search (Mormon) site. Other sites may offer a copy of the same transcript. There is no access to images.

Subscription sites which also give you access to images may well be driven from a completely different transcript index, and therefore give different results when searching.

As ever, it is a case of "you pays your money and takes your choice.....!"

I think IGP's correct, although I've never noticed a statement that FMP or Ancestry are using FS's 1881 transcription.
In the lack of a statement, one could infer this by seeing enough identical mistranscriptions (fewer if they were idiosyncratic).
I believe I've seen enough in the case of Ancestry, but I've not used FMP enough to really confirm that, yet.

Here's an example - Henry Young was my gg grandad's brother, and Elizabeth was their stepmother.

FMP (look up Elizabeth):
YOUNGER, Elizabeth Head Widow F 56 1825 Laundress No Shields, Northumberland VIEW
YOUNGER, Henry Son Single M 45 1836 Labourer No Shields, Northumberland VIEW
Piece: 5076 Folio: 48 Page: 1
Registration District: Tynemouth
Civil Parish: Chirton
Municipal Borough:
Address: 7, Chirton, Chirton
County: Northumberland

FMP (Look up Henry) differs in the page ref, as this h/h is split over 2 pages:
Piece: 5076 Folio: 48 Page: 2

FS: https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/XQCG-5DT
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/XQCG-5DY
[This now agrees with FMP, including the mistranscription of Eliz's pob=North Shields as No Shields - her image is quite clear]

If you look up Henry on Ancestry, you'll see that his page ref is:
Piece: 5076 Folio: 48 Page Number: 1
i.e., the same as the head's, even though it's a different page.
FS used to do the same misreferencing, but don't any longer.



Although it's not the 1881 census, it's worth noting that FS give the h/h in 1871, e.g.:
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/V5BX-2ZY


Also http://www.freecen.org.uk/cgi/search.pl is worth checking - they don't have any completed year, but some counties have at least one completed year, specifically BDF, CON, DEV, DUR, HEF, NFK, RUT, SSX, WAR, WES, WIL and FLN.
You can check out
http://www.freecen.org.uk/statistics.html

Even though 1861 is 25% incomplete for Northumberland, most of Tynemouth RD is done (only the Wallsend subdistrict is not transcribed), so we can find Henry again:

1861 Census
Piece: RG9/3840 Place: Tynmouth -Northumberland Enumeration District: 9
Civil Parish: Chirton Ecclesiastical Parish: -
Folio: 33 Page: 3 Schedule: 15
Address: Chirton Village
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Surname First name(s) Rel Status Sex Age Occupation Where Born Remarks
YOUNGER Thomas Head M M 56 Coal Miner Northumberland - Hartley
YOUNGER Elizabeth Wife M F 41 Laundress Northumberland - North Shields
YOUNGER Henry Son U M 24 Journeyman Gardner Northumberland - Chirton
YOUNGER Thomas Son - M 14 Blacksmiths Ap Northumberland - Chirton

[FreeCEN have switched the piece #s 3838 & 3840 - I've informed them of this error]


Even though neither FS nor FMP list the 1881 subdistrict (Ancestry does), you can look up rg11/5076 at
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/ and see:
Registration Sub-District 2C North Shields