The Public Record Office has just put the 1901 Census results online - as from 9am today. This throws open lots of possibilities, including information on family history, local history info - who lived at your address if it existed 100 years ago? - etc.

Searches can be made by name, place, address, institution (SJP?)...and vessel, if your ancestors were on a ship at the time.

Searches are free with a small fee to pay to view the actual digitalised page(s) you want to see - including the option to see the actual return as filled in by your great grandad or whatever.

Details via:

http://www.pro.gov.uk/

-- Anonymous, January 02, 2002

Answers

A Perfect use of the web...though presume the 1901 Census was confined to England and Wales.

-- Anonymous, January 02, 2002

The direct address is:

http://www.census.pro.gov.uk/

...but, needless to say, the site is being deluged and has crashed. Please try later etc.

-- Anonymous, January 02, 2002

Sounds great - I'll have a go. Thanks for the info

-- Anonymous, January 02, 2002

Now being reported that some 20 million people worldwide tried to get through on the first day - 40 X the expected demand. The site was still knackered...even at 6.30am today. Typically British!

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002

can they not have a queueing system? "Thank you for waiting, your hit is important to us. Meanwhile, here's some DJ Otzi"

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002

The launch was pretty well publicised - hopefully, the the stream of `hits` will gradually become steadier. I`m dying to get on there, but don`t have the time to spend all day trying.(:o)

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002

We should all post details of any relatives living in Newcastle in 1901. Bound to be some near neighbours.

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002

Latest message:

"The site will be down between 1400 and 1600 GMT today to enable us to improve site performance. Please try later."

Hope they can sort it out. It was knackered minutes into its launch - even before the deluge of TV/Radio/Press publicity yesterday. I've got a little way into the site on a few occasions, but you could wait another hundred years before getting any results back.

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002

Apparently it's a pay site, in any case.

Five quid to browse the archives.

F*ck that for a game of marbles.

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002

The £5 is a minimum charge but initial searches are completely free.

Once you've found what you're looking for, you have the option of spending 50p / 75p a throw to view / download / print the pages you're after re your family / address or whatever...and you can suspend a "session" and return within 48 hours to use the full value of the five quid...or you can use a separate voucher system.

Think a fiver for all that info is a bargain - proceeds go towards putting other stuff online, which is a massive job when you consider the number of records involved.

-- Anonymous, January 03, 2002

I had a look but could not find clarky, Jonno or buff. I did find Screacher though, but did not think it was worth 5 quid!

-- Anonymous, January 04, 2002

Ssssh! My form is still behind the clock on the mantlepiece. I've been meaning to fill it in for several decades now but haven't quite got round to it yet.

-- Anonymous, January 04, 2002