Federation Of Family History Societies

Can you transcribe the 1851 Census?

 

Do you get annoyed with errors in the online censuses? Much of these censuses, other than the 1881 census, have been transcribed overseas and despite what must be experienced staff there are inevitable differences. I know many of us have found that alternative transcriptions of the census have a value in their own right as where one index has difficulties another index gets it right. You now have a chance to help in transcribing the 1851 census and helping the family history society that covers that area.

Many family history societies have previously indexed the 1851 census in various ways. These have been in many different formats ranging from surname-only indexes to full transcripts and these have been published in booklets, fiche and CD-ROM with several being available on the Federation's FamilyHistoryOnline web service. Some of these indexes were produced in the days before the widespread use of personal computers and are only available in typescript format.

In this new project many societies that are members of the Federation of Family History Societies and findmypast.com will be working with you to produce a full index to the 1851 census that will allow searching by virtually all fields, including occupation, age and sex. This index will be connected to images of the pages from the census enumerator's books. Societies will receive a small payment every time someone views the results of a search in an area that's been indexed by a volunteer working with at society. This will be an important source of revenue for societies as sales of other versions of the census have declined.

You can work at home using your own computer and broadband connection whenever you have a few spare minutes. All you need is a recent web browser such as Internet Explorer or Firefox and the Adobe Flash player - this will install semi-automatically in the unlikely case that you don't already have it installed. The important page of the 'transcription tool' is illustrated below - showing the image of the census page, and the spreadsheet-like grid where you enter the information. The panel in the bottom right corner provide help and other information. More details about the program can be found at www.familyhistoryonline.net/fmp/1851.html

If you're interested in taking part please let us know by emailing us at with your contact details and the names of any counties where you have a particular knowledge or interest. Not all societies will be taking part, so not all areas will be available - those areas will be completed overseas. Findmypast.com are aiming to have most of the 1851 census online by the end of the year so please don't delay.

Many people have said that your education as a Family Historian cannot be complete unless you've done some transcribing as only then will you appreciate the strengths and weaknesses of the original records. So now's the time to educate yourself.