The first national census in the UK was in 1801 and there has been one taken every ten years since that date [except for 1941 because of WWII].

I think the first ones didn’t show much but numbers of people, no personal details, except perhaps the name of the main householder. These were organised by the people who looked after the poor and also the clergy.

I believe that the census returns prior to 1841 were all destroyed, but, as with most things, there will be some that slipped the net. It may be possible to find the odd one but quite honestly I wouldn’t know where to look for those. However, I do know that the City of Westminster Archives have some information on anything they have before 1841, with lists of inhabitants. That could be useful if you were looking for London details.

A name index has been compiled for the years 1841-1901 and is available as a microfiche, for a fee from the National Archives and Ancestry, of course these lists are free to view if you visit personally.

From 1841 onwards these records are kept and the information is only released 100 years from the date of the census. The reason for this I suppose is because they expect most people appearing on the census will not be around any more.

I am not sure why the authorities do this, it cannot be privacy because you can go onto other sources for information and find records of people who are still living.

As the years have gone on more information has been added to the returns. Some of the older ones also mentioned whether the person was deaf, mute, or [quite unkindly I thought] an idiot/lunatic. All those from 1841 give each persons age, place of birth, occupation and relationship to the head of the house. Census returns are a very useful tool when you are doing family history research.

One of the ways I think a census return can be helpful is that the enumerator took the names of any person in the house on the night of the census, plus their relationship to the Head of the Household.

I myself have been able to confirm a connection in that way. I had the name of an Uncle of my Paternal Grandfather, but had never been able to prove the connection between the families, but from census details I found his Mother living with her Daughter and Son-in-Law and the name was the one I was looking for. So that proved to be very helpful and confirmed the connection for me very neatly.

Plus another time I found my Paternal Grandfather listed on his Royal Navy ship in Australia on the census night. Being a British ship the census was performed as though they were in England.

http://uk-genealogy.org.uk/census.html will give you links to all of the UK Census returns which are currently available online for England, Scotland, Wales, Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.

If you have access to census returns you can find so much information about a family, they really are a little mine of information.

You should not have any trouble going back to 1837, that was the date when the registration of births, marriages and deaths began in the UK. However, you will need to have some idea of which year to look for whichever event you are researching.

Hopefully you still have some of your older relatives still living when you decide to start a family tree. It happens all the time that you decide to start your research and you realise that most of your older relatives have gone and all their family knowledge with them.

My own Mother died 16 years ago and I still catch myself thinking ‘Oh. I’ll just ask Mum that’ and then I think Oh. no, I can’t do that any more. So if you have any interest at all in Family History the sooner you start the better.

Ask the older family members for their memories, I think you will be pleasantly surprised that they will be eager to share with you. Also, remember to ask if they have any certificates, births, marriages or deaths, everything will be helpful. Any old pieces of paper they had almost forgotten they had with dates and names etc.

If any of the relatives do have copies of certificates that you need that is good because it all costs money, every time you have to order them. You may be one of those lucky people whose family keep up a family bible, they can be a great source of information.

If you are lucky, you may still live near the area where your ancestors lived so that you will be able to visit the local Record Office and look at the church registers on file or microfiche. This is how you will have to do ancestor research further back than 1837.

This sort of family history research means you can only go one step at a time, starting with yourself, then your parents marriage, then their births, and so on backwards. Your people will double at every marriage, do not forget the female lines, after all they are 50% of the gene pool.

Of course it depends on why you are doing your research. You may be trying to discover an inheritance, perhaps a house or land, or just the history of an old family home. Then you may want to stick to just the name involved, but true family history involves every person who is attached to your family members.

One thing I would say, do not get dispirited if you find a difficulty in tracing someone. Always have someone else to look up, don’t waste your time staring at a ‘brick wall’. You can always come back to the person you are having difficulties with. You may have better luck another day.

I saw a programme on TV the other day about Heir Hunters, I had never seen it before. It was very interesting, about companies who trace living heirs to people who have died without leaving a will. Watching them work was like seeing yourself doing your family history. They have to go about it in exactly the same way.

Fortunately for them they have all the resources at their finger tips, every record is available to them and they have people working for them, all over, who could visit the living relatives to check if they were the correct persons. Very interesting.

I just wish that they published a list of estates which were waiting for heirs, wouldn’t it be great if you found someone on your tree. Mind you there are only certain people who would be eligible, if you don’t fit in fairly near to the deceased then you don’t count – shame!