Note: This is work-in-progress that has been neglected whilst I reformatted the main site. Once the site settles down I will get back to documenting my sources.

Census of England and Wales

The UK Public Record Office releases the census returns for England and Wales via The Family History section of The National Archives. Census returns are closed for 100 years, so that the most recent available is for 1901. Census returns prior to 1841 contained only counts and therefore are of little use to genealogists. Census records and indexes are available from:

Ancestry.co.uk available as per-per-view or by subscription. This is the most cost effective resource if you want to look at a lot of records. Currently has 1841-1901 transcribed and indexed.
National Archives. An expensive way of viewing the 1901 census.
FindMyPast.com (formerly 1837online.com) Pay-per-view of censuses.
Family Search (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) free index to 1881 census.
FreeCEN from RootsWeb.com. Indexing of census by volunteers. Access is free. Coverage is variable but improving.

My main source has been Ancestry.co.uk, although I sometimes use the others as a check. The only irritation is that it does not list families or pages in the same order as the original document.

The accuracy of the censuses varies and there is lots of scope for error. The original was subject to variations in pronunciation and spelling, as well as those who had reason not to be recorded. The transcription to electronic form is dependent on the condition of the scanned image and ability to read Victorian script writing, and finally, there does seem to be missing sheets.

My observations are:

1841 - Transcription depends on originals which varies from difficult to almost unreadable.
1851 - Reasonable transcription accuracy. Seems to be mostly complete.
1861 - Reasonable transcription accuracy but there are quite a few families I cannot find that appear 10 years later.
1871 - Reasonable transcription accuracy and seems to be almost complete.
1881 - Good transcription accuracy and seems to be almost complete.
1891 - Reasonable transcription accuracy but there are many families I cannot find that appear 10 years earlier and/or later.
1901 - Good transcription accuracy and seems to be almost complete.

Advice

Before the census records are useful you will need to trace your family history back to 1901 or earlier. The more common the surname(s) you are looking for, the more information you will need to find your ancestors. You probably need at least 3 pieces of information to get a definitive match, such as: location, occupation, place of birth, spouse or children's or parent(s)'s names.

Once you have a match in the one census, search for each family member in the previous census. Search the marriage index for the years just before the oldest child was born. Search the birth index for all individuals found. Search the death index for anyone who appears on one census but not the next. Sometimes these indexes give up information, but often you will find no match or several possible matches.

If you fail to find a match start to consider errors and variations. Any part of the name might have been recorded differently, e.g. Thos for Thomas, Wm for William. Eastbrook and Easterbrook. McGowan and Mc Gowan (Ancestry.co.uk indexing does not work well with spaces). It is quite common for young children to be recorded with a familiar name (e.g. Flossie) and then switch to their formal name (Florence) or middle name when older. Harry and Henry seem to be interchangable at will in the 19th century in addition to looking very similar in Victorian script handwriting.

Census of Scotland

The source documents for the Census of Scotland are very similar to those of England and Wales, however, access is more limited and available from:

Ancestry.co.uk available as per-per-view or by subscription. This is the most cost effective resource if you want to look at a lot of records. Currently has 1841-1901 transcribed and indexed, however, original images are not available and the transcriptions are much less accurate than those for England and Wales.
FreeCEN from RootsWeb.com. Indexing of census by volunteers. Access is free. Coverage is variable but improving.
ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk available as pay-per-view.
FreeCEN from RootsWeb.com. Indexing of census by volunteers. Access is free. Coverage is variable but improving.

Census of Ireland

Most of the Census records for Ireland before 1901 have been destroyed. A few isolated copies exist covering small areas.

The 1901 and 1910 census records can be viewed in the National Archives of Ireland in Dublin but they are not indexed by name so it is only possible to search if you know where your ancestors lived.

The 1901 census can also be viewed in Belfast, again with no name index.

The National Archives of Ireland has established a research partnership with Library and Archives of Canada to digitise and index the 1901 and 1911 census records. A few areas are available here.

BMD (Birth, Marriage, Death) Index for England and Wales

Civil Registration of births, marriages and deaths started on 1 July 1837 in England and Wales. This was later expanded in 1927 to also include still births, and adoptions. The records are organised into the quarter in which the event was recorded by local registration district and an index of names compiled. Each quarter's records are copied to the central records office and again indexed by name. Copies of the certificates themselves are only available by personal application and cost between £7 and £10 each, thus they are not available for full transcription in the way the census records are. However, the indexes are available.

The central register indexes can be searched at:

FreeBMD - an ongoing project, the aim of which is to transcribe the Civil Registration index of births, marriages and deaths for England and Wales, and to provide free Internet access to the transcribed records.
Ancestry.co.uk - a time-delayed copy of the FreeBMD database. This provides faster and easier searching (for subscribers) but it not up-to-date compared with FreeBMD.

The BMD index is of little use on its own as it only provides a name, district and quarter, but when used with other records it becomes a valuable reference.

The original records and indexes from 1837 were handwritten. From 19XX they were typewritten and then from 1984 computerised.

Birth Index

Once an approximate date of birth has been obtained from another source such as the census, the BMD can be searched for a match. Although the BMD index is incomplete and not 100% accurate, it is being transcribed by area so a search within a single area is better than a national search.

If only one match is found (allowing for appropriate inaccuracies in other records) there is a good chance that it is the person you are after and narrows the birth down to a 4-5 month period (the 3-month registration quarter, plus an allowance for delay in registering the event). Sometimes the BMD index reveals more information, for example, someone might be recorded in the census as "John F" but there is a BMD index for "John Francis". You should never rely on just a BMD index match though, if there is any doubt, a copy of the certificate should be ordered using the GRO reference obtain from the BMD index. With a GRO reference certificates cost £7.

BMD - Marriage Index

The marriage indexes give a volume and page number. There are 4 marriages on earlier pages and only 2 on later entries. The value of the index depends on the information you already have:

The husband's full name and wife's firstname will often reveal the wife's maiden name. This requires for there to be no duplicate female first names on a page.
The wife's full name will result in 4 (earliest records) or 2 (later records) possible husbands. The two surnames can then be used to search census records for a match.

After 1910 the index contains the spouses surname which removes most of the uncertainty of pairing up names in earlier records.

Death Index

The death index is the least useful, especially for earlier records which do not include age at death.

Easterbrook Family History Last Updated: Site 2008-08-10 Page 2008-01-28