BACKGROUND TO THE RECORDS

The Census Returns are of fundamental significance for enabling the advancement of any family history research project. Used in conjunction with the General Register Office records of birth, marriage and death together with parish registers, collectively these records form the backbone of all genealogical research activity within the period covered by the past 200 years.

The system of gathering information for a national census commenced in 1801, though for the most part, the usefulness of the records for genealogical research purposes commence with the returns of 1841. Thus was created a snapshot in time, recording your ancestors in the place where they were staying on the night of each census. The records identify where your ancestors were born, in what capacity they earned their living, their relationship to other members of the family and their age at the time of the census, which in many cases can be a record of an ancestor born before 1800.

OUR IN HOUSE SERVICE

An extremely important and integral part of our in house research facility are the microfiche images of all the original census returns for the whole county of Yorkshire, from 1841 to 1901. Additionally and also very importantly, Yorkshire Family History has brought together the entire set of individual collections of available surname indexes that have been published for the county. The majority of these indexes have been published either by Family History Societies or Local History Societies, of which there are many in the county, while a smaller number of indexes have been published privately, by individuals who have indexed specific areas for their own interest.

Typically, the majority of these indexes are scattered around the various Yorkshire repositories with no one repository having anything approaching a complete county collection. Yorkshire Family History has brought all of these indexes under one roof for your benefit. Our in-house collection continues to grow as new material is published and this is of significant benefit to our clients. Identification of an ancestor is very often made possible with the aid of these indexes, which in turn means that identification of the original census document in need of consultation is more readily achieved.

These indexes form an important part of our extensive in-house research facility, a facility that has not gone unnoticed by other professional researchers; it is not unusual for such researchers to commission our services for dealing with this aspect of their client's research.

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