Whether your family has already given you clues into your family history or not, discovering the facts for yourself is a fascinating journey.
The census records are the best place to start. Originally set up to help the Government work out how much tax everyone should pay, they quickly became the most important way of collecting information about the population. Enumerators visited every house around the country, and wrote down the inhabitants’ names, addresses, ages, birthplaces and occupations.
has access to this information allowing you to peek in on your ancestors’ records as far back as 1841.
Of all the periods in history the Victorian age was the most packed with change as thousands of families saw their fortunes transformed. The census records from 1841 to 1911 at Ancestry.co.uk
will give you the opportunity to research your family tree in this remarkable period of history. During this time your relatives could have begun their lives in the poor house and ended them in a Victorian mansion.
The records also reveal the relationships in a household. That means that if you find one ancestor as an adult, it’s likely you’ll find a wife or husband and children. You can then go back to an earlier census where they’re recorded as a child, and find out about their parents, brothers, sisters and even grandparents.
All of this makes censuses the best place to start tracing your family history. You can work your way back through the decades, adding more and more names to your tree.
For everybody curious about their ancestry, the best place to start is the 1911 Census. If you had a relative who was alive in that year, you only have to type in their name, your best guess of where they lived and when they were born, and see what the records reveal. Good luck with your search!
Get started now at Ancestry.co.uk