FreeCEN — UK census transcriptions

Volunteer transcriptions of the UK censuses, free and with NO ACCOUNT for searching (the search page is /search_queries/new). Pick a census year from 1841 to 1911, a county by Chapman code and a surname and optional first name, and the results come back as a list that opens to the whole household, with relationship, marital status, age, occupation and birthplace for each member and the piece, enumeration district, folio, page and schedule. That makes it the free way to see a household and a lodger beside a head, which an index to one person cannot. COVERAGE IS PER COUNTY AND PER YEAR AND UNEVEN. For Hertfordshire the 1851 census was found (the Baldock district, Weston among its parishes); searches of Hertfordshire for 1841 and for 1861 returned nothing, which is not a finding that the records do not exist. A control surname at the same county and year should be run before a nil result is quoted. Birthplace is the parish as the enumerator heard it, and ages are often a year or two out against a baptism.