1911 Census - when will Ancestry get it?

[stanmapstone]

The 1911 Census itself contains some 35,000 volumes of schedules and 38,000 enumerators summary books. A total of 10,064,500 schedules were printed, which will be in the 35,000 volumes. So it will be much less work to scan and index the enumerator's summary books, than the schedules.

Stan

[newburychap]

The 1911 Census itself contains some 35,000 volumes of schedules and 38,000 enumerators summary books. A total of 10,064,500 schedules were printed, which will be in the 35,000 volumes. So it will be much less work to scan and index the enumerator's summary books, than the schedules.

I doubt that any scanning will be needed - TNA would not put precious documents like these through the trauma of scanning/photography more often than necessary - ie once.

FindMyPast's early access will, I guess, have paid for the digitisation, but I suspect TNA managed it and got to keep copies and the right to flog them to all comers after a delay.

I suspect it all comes down to cost (which, I have been told, is enormous) - Ancestry don't yet see that the full monty would be worth it in business terms.

[Sloe Gin]

I thought that FindMyPast/Brightsolid had exclusive rights for a period of six months after release - counting from when they had released all counties, that time limit was up a good while ago.

I imagine that other companies would buy the rights to use FindMyPast's images and probably do their own transcriptions.  That would take time and it may well be that Ancestry already have it in hand.

Told ya   
O ye of little faith 

[mrs griff]

Hello any RC person know if the 1911 will be coming to Ancestry  did it read it somewhere or just thought I did
Mrs Griff

[aghadowey]

I've merged your post with the existing thread about 1911 census coming to Ancestry.

[nigelp]

Many people think that emumerators went from door to door filling in the books from questions asked, and they think this explains mis-transcriptions due to people being mis-heard.

The real truth is that every census has been held in the same way - census schedules left with householders to fill in; census forms collected; census data copied from the schedules into the enumerator's returns books.  The questions asked have varied from census to census, but the way the census is held has never changed.

At the dates of the early censuses there was still a high level of illiteracy. As a result enumerators completed a large number of census schedules for households. Therefore, being mis-heard does partially explain mis-transcriptions / errors subsequently recorded in the returns books. By 1901 a much higher proportion of households were filling in the schedules themselves and poor handwriting is of greater significance.

Nigel

[Suffolk Mawther]

I have been a Census Enumerator and although we left the forms with each household, we were made aware that not everyone would fill them in.

I helped several people,mostly elderly, by filling in the forms whilst sitting in their homes with them.  Some people were unable to write due to poor literacy, others because of arthritis in their hands.  Both would have affected our ancestors too.

Pat ...

[stanmapstone]

Surveys of adult literacy in the early part of Victoria's reign suggest that, for example, 79 per cent of the Northumberland and Durham miners could read, and about half of them could write. Eighty seven per cent of children in the Norfolk and Suffolk workhouse in 1838 could read and write. Thanks to the growth in freelance schooling, all privately financed, literacy levels had risen to about 92 per cent by 1870 and Forster's Education Act
"The Victorians" by A.N. Wilson ISBN 0-09-945186-7.



Letter from RH Gregg of Styal to Edwin Chadwick:Manchester, 17 September 1834
Gregg, a factory owner at Styal near Manchester; was having difficulty in finding enough workers for his mill at Quarry Bank. His solution is set out in this letter to Edwin Chadwick, secretary to the Poor Law Commission.
Whilst food is cheap and wages high, the want of education (I do not merely mean the ability to read and write, which few here are without), but education which may affect manners, morals, and the proper use of their advantages, is extremely felt and to be deeply deplored. I do hope Government will not allow another session to pass without making some struggle to effect this most desirable object.
Annual Report of the Poor Law Commission, Appendix C number 5 (1835)

Everywhere there were clergymen, doctors, schoolmasters, shopkeepers, tradesmen or a neighbour who would help with the filling in of the schedule.

Just to add from the Enumerators Instructions for 1851;
If, on enquiry for the Schedule, it is delivered to him not filled up, he must fill it up himself, asking all the necessary questions. He should if possible, see the head of the family for that purpose, and obtain the information from him. In the abscence of the Occupier, any other member of the family possessing the requisite intelligence, may supply the necessary particulars.


Stan

[Suffolk Mawther]

Blast bor!  Oi wasn't working on those Census!   

Some interesting snippets there Stan, thanks for posting them.
I will find my copy of 'The Victorians', inspired to have another little read of it.

Have visited the Quarry Bank Mill at Styall a couple of times over the years - well worth visiting.

Pat ...