Track 7

Track 07

Lecturer:

OK, so to finish I want to look at the resources available for researching UK census information for the essay you’ll be writing at the end of this module. There are many resources for the study of the civilian population and family history out there ranging from public to academic to commercial. Some are available for the public to access free of charge, whilst others are only available by payment of fees, or restricted to academics and subject to registration. Some are more appropriate to family or genealogical investigation, others to historical population research.

So if we start at the beginning of the list on your handout, you’ll see firstly there is the Family Records Centre based in central London. The centre and their website are available to anyone in the country who has an interest in researching demographic data. Their work might be useful to give you an overview of the general sorts of data and services available. Unfortunately, you do have to pay a registration charge of £20 for a year’s access to their material.

The next resource on the list is Genes Reunited, which is mainly for people who want to find out more about their ancestors. There are some good interactive tools on this website, especially the one which shows you how to manipulate the National Census Association’s statistical data. Although Genes Reunited is very useful, it is used by a range of businesses, and therefore accessing the site will cost you.

Now, the third item on the handout is The National Census Association, which contains the most up-to-date data as it’s compiled from official government census data every ten years. Bi companies and individuals are able to access all their resources without payment, so this may be a good place to start your research.

Finally, I’d just like to draw your attention to two journals at the bottom of the handout. The first one, Journal of Historical Migration, is not actually a journal but a collection of articles on a website. Anyway, you might like to take a look at it because it has several articles on the importance of recording census data from a historical research perspective. This site is available to the general public so you don’t have to pay or register. The other one, the Journal of Social Demography, is only available using your university online journals login details as it can only be accessed by those studying or researching in higher education. Right. Well, that should be enough reading for you.