A New Year: 2022

 Family Historians are easily excited.  At least that is the impression of those on the outside who consider the fascination shown by said family historians in the minutiae of the past as perplexing.  But actually this year, indeed this month, is likely to be really exciting. 

In two days time the 1921 Census (of England and Wales) will be released.  On 6th January we will be able to read what our (near) ancestors recorded a little over a century ago.  We will be able to see where they lived, who they lived with and what they did for a living.  Like the 1911 Census we will be able to actually see the documents they filled in.  In all the other censuses what has survived are the entries made by the enumerators.  

The 1921 Census was taken while the country was emerging from the shadow of the Great War and in the immediate aftermath of the 'flu pandemic that killed thousands (possibly as many as 200,000 in Great Britain).  It was a very different country to that examined in 1911.

In 1921 the population had grown to over 42,000,000.  The census itself was delayed because of the industrial unrest that dominated the spring of that year.  We will be looking at our ancestors as they were on the night of Sunday 19th June.

Census records are closed for a century.  The 1921 is the last release that most of us are likely to see.  The 1931 census (for England and Wales) was destroyed in a fire during the Second World War and no census was taken in 1941.  We will have to wait until 2052 before the next (English/Welsh) census will be available to view.

The 1921 census of Scotland will be published later in the year.

Hopefully everybody can appreciate the excitement?