By CHRISTINE BODEN
The largest census ever to be automated is now available on CD ROM for home use thanks to the help of volunteers across the United States and the British Isles.
The automated British Census of 1881 took 11 years and 2.5 million hours of volunteer labor to complete.
The census was referred to as the most complete and largest census database ever created by Elder D. Todd Christofferson, executive director of the Family History Department for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The database contains information for over 30 million individuals.
The information found within the database includes the person’s name, marriage, birth, gender, occupation and address. Paul G. Nauta, a spokesperson for LDS Church Family History Research Center, said the database is unique not only because of its size, but also because of the ease by which genealogists can find the names they are searching for.
The data has been divided into eight regions: East Anglia, Greater London, Midlands, North Central, Northern Borders and Miscellany, Southwestern, Wales and Monmouth, and Scotland. A researcher can look for names in any one of the eight regions or from all of them at once.
David Rencher, president of the Federation of Genealogical Societies, said the regions include not only wealthy people, but the people who lived in ‘poor-houses,’ mental institutions, workhouses, schools, and hospitals as well.
“It lists all people living, working, or traveling on a boat or ship at the time the census was taken,” Rencher said.
Nauta said once the researcher has found the surname of the person they are looking for, he or she can look at the names of neighbors. He said that many people don’t realize that back then families lived near each other. This database allows the researcher to find many members of one family by finding one individual’s name and looking at who his or her next door neighbor was.
“Where once researchers would have spent hours, days or even weeks looking in microfilm for a name, they can now find that name in just seconds and it’s from the comfort of their own home,” Nauta said.
Rencher agreed with Nauta about the user friendliness of the system. He called it the genealogical equivalence of a gold or platinum album and believes there will be tremendous demand for it.
Richard E. Turley, Jr., managing director of the Family History Department, explained that each page of the census was transferred to microfilm and photocopied. Nauta said that at least two volunteers checked each piece of information to guarantee accuracy. Where a discrepancy appeared one and sometimes two more peole would recheck the information.
Among the 30 million entries users can find the names of Charles L. Dodgson, also known as Lewis Carrol, “M.A. Student & Lecturer” at Oxford University, Joseph R. Kipling — a 15 year old attending school in Devon, and Master Winston Churchill — the six year old son of Lord Randolph Churchill, a member of Parliament.
According to Nauta, a similar, but even larger database is being created from the 1880 U.S. census. It is due to be completed sometime in the year 2000.
According a news release sent out by the LDS Church, the census will be published on 25 compact discs. It can be purchased in its entirety or by region through the distribution outlets of LDS Church.
