Depending where you live, either today or tomorrow will be a busy day if your genealogy takes you to England and Wales. That’s because on January 6, 2022 at 12:01 London time the 1921 Census of England and Wales is exclusively available at Findmypast. (I live in Edmonton so that’s actually going to be 5:01 p.m. mtn January 5th) .
Thirty-eight million people took part in the census in England and Wales on June 9, 1921. In 1921 much had happened in recent years. WW1 had ended a few years prior,, and the entire world was recovering from the Spanish Flu.
By 1921 all of my family lines had been in Canada for at least ten years. But they had left siblings, parents, cousins, and friends behind in the “old country.” So there is much that can be discovered since the last time the census was taken in 1911.
The Census of England and Wales has been taken every ten years and is held for 100 years before it’s released to the public and because the 1931 Census was destroyed by fire and no census was taken in 1941 because of WWII, this will be the only census available for quite some time. In fact the next census after this one will be the 1951 census but that won’t be available until 2052.
Below (if you click to enlarge), you’ll get a better view of the front and back of the form that was used for this census.
What Will You Learn?
Census information can be a virtual gold mine of information and here’s what you’ll learn from the 1921 census.
- Name of all people living in the household
- Their relationship to the head of the house. If a person is not normally living at this location they are listed as a visitor even if they are related to the head of the house. So don’t disregard those that are listed as a “visitor”.
- Age
- Sex
- Relationship or Orphanhood. Anyone over the age of 15 is to be listed as Single, Married, Widowed or D for divorced or disolved. For those children under 15 it shows whether both parents are alive, father is dead, mother is dead or if both parents are dead.
- Bithplace and Nationality
- Personal Occupation If a person is attending school it distriquishes between full or part time. Occuation is listed as not only what the person is doing for a living but the name of the place of employment and the address . Or if they are the employer they are listed as such as well as giving the name and address of their company.
- Age of children under sixteen. You’ll see the age of all children at the time of their last birthday.
As I mentioned earlier WWI had ended in 1918 and the Spanish Flu had impacted families as it to had only finished the year prior with 50 million dead worldwide and a quarter of the British population affected. So the details of relationships and whether the children have been orphaned are important.
I love the fact that now we will not only learn what the person was doing for a living but we gain greater detail about the name of the employer and where they are located. This means we can gather further information about those companies. Who doesn’t love more “meat to the bone” to bring our ancestors to life.
So how do you access these records? This record set is exclusive to Findmypast and it’s available online. This is not part of the regular subscription offerings but you’ll save 10% if you are a subscriber. If you aren’t a subscriber then you’ll need to register and then you pay $4.90 US for the original image and $3.50 US for the record transcript. This is the only way you’ll be able to access these documents for the next three years.
Are You Ready?
As I mentioned earlier my direct family lines were all living in Edmonton by the time of the 1921 England and Wales Census but each of my English ancestors had family living back in England. Because Findmypast offers the 1939 Registry as part of their regular subscription offering this can help me with my decision as to who I need to search for.
So if there is family that I can’t located in the 1939 Registry then this makes me wonder why? Then those people will be the family I search for in the 1921 census. I can search and then decide if I just want the original document or the transcript, or both.
The 1921 Census of England and Wales is a joint partner ship between Findmypast and The National Archives (TNA).
Enjoy this new record set and happy hunting from The Family History Hound.
I waited 101 years, what’s another three more?