UK govt charges taxpayers to view 1911 census, conducted with tax-money

Fee sez, "The government releases the 1911 census in the UK today, three years ahead of the normal 100 year embargo.

The website allows family historians to search for ancestors using names and birth dates, and provides a lot more information than previous censuses, including the length of marriage, number of children, including those who have died, and more accurate information about places of birth.

That's the upside: the downside is that it costs 10 credits to view a transcript, and 30 credits to view the actal census return filled in by an ancestor… and 60 credits cost £6.95.

As a friend said, it seems a bit odd that the tax payer can be asked to pay for the original collection of the material, and then stiffed to this extent for access to the information."

Use the census to search for your ancestors

(Thanks, Fee!)