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The complete 1911 census records for people living in England, Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are now online at 1911census.co.uk, including full details of British Army personnel and their families stationed overseas.

Family and local history

Completed by 36 million householders on Sunday 2 April 1911, the census records show the name, age, place of birth, marital status and occupation of every resident in every home as well as their relationship to the head of the household. For the first time, the enumerators' summary books for the whole of England and Wales have also gone online, recording details of all properties in the country in 1911.

On completion of the project, Debra Chatfield, Marketing Manager at findmypast.com which has developed the 1911census.co.uk website service in association with The National Archives, said: 'We're delighted that the final records have been uploaded from the 1911 census including the military records and the records for Wales, the Isle of Man and Channel Islands. We hope many generations will gain a huge amount of valuable information about their ancestors by consulting the records and that they'll discover new chapters of their family history that they previously knew very little or nothing about.'

Nation's favourite pastime

Researching our family history is rapidly becoming the nation's favourite pastime. Nearly a quarter of the population (23%) have now actively researched their family tree, research commissioned by 1911census.co.uk reveals. The activity is now just as popular as participating in team sports and even overtaking other popular hobbies such as blogging, tweeting and playing bingo.

'It's wonderful to see that so many people are discovering a new passion for family history through the 1911 census,' Oliver Morley, Director of Customer and Business Development at The National Archives, commented. 'Bringing this project to completion has been one of the most exciting events for us this year, and to know that so many people have been able to access part of their personal history online shows how valuable it can be to make these records available via the web.' 

The 1911 census records have been released three years earlier than the scheduled 2012 date as a result of public demand for the 1911 census.