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We are very pleased to announce that we have now published a complete transcript of the 1881 England & Wales census - it is now available for you to search on the findmypast site. Furthermore, the 1881 census transcript is completely free for you to search and viewing transcription results is also completely free.

We are currently working on adding the images to the transcription – as this is a large task, we imagine that we will have completed this around the middle of next year. However, the transcription itself is of very good quality and should give your numerous new leads whilst we prepare the original document images for you.

About the 1881 census

The 1881 census was taken on the night of 3 April 1881 and gave that the population of England and Wales as 25,974,000.

To put the census into an historical context, 1881 was the year in which the Savoy Theatre opened in London, as well as the Natural History Museum. The former Conservative Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli, died on 19 April, whilst Alexander Fleming, P.G Wodehouse and Pablo Picasso were all born in this year.

The ten most popular surnames were, in order, Smith, Jones, Williams, Taylor, Brown, Davies, Evans, Thomas, Roberts and Wilson.*

1871 census: 4 more counties added, entire census due for completion March 2008

We have also added another 4 counties to the 1871 census; Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Gloucestershire and Kent.

We are now reaching the end of our work with the 1871 census – our current estimate is that all the remaining counties (largely the smaller English counties and the majority of Wales) should be completed and live on the findmypast site in March 2008.






Drat. I have Smith, Jones, Williams, Davies and Roberts in my tree...............................lol




Deb:)

1881 has been free on ancestry and igi for a while.