1911 census scotland

[scottishmist]

Hi
when is the 1911 census out for Scotland ?

Jan

[Mort29]

The position in Scotland regarding access to the Scotland 1911 Census differs from that in England and Wales. The Census in Scotland is devolved to the Scottish Parliament and Administration and the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 exempts personal Census records from disclosure until after a 100 year closure period.

So, while 1911 Census information for England and Wales was made available at the start of January 2009, the Registrar General for Scotland does not plan to release the Scottish 1911 Census information until just after the date of the 2011 Census (27 March 2011), by which time "the 100 year closure period will have ended".

The Registrar General for Scotland believes that "this strikes a balance between the interest of the records to family historians and the privacy of the people recorded by the Census, some of whom will still be alive. People who completed the 1911 Census were promised confidentiality. Although that is a long time ago, it is important not to call into question the validity of the equivalent promise on modern Census forms. That could deter people from filling in the Census form, reducing the response rate and making the Census results (which are so important for many aspects of Scottish life) less accurate".

The latest information is that the census will be available sometime in April 2011 via the scotlandspeople website.
Payment will be by pay-per-view credits - there is no plan to introduce subscriptions. If you live in Scotland, you can obtain credits at a reduced price from your local library. There is a little publicised Scotlands People Voucher Scheme which allows public libraries to sell discounted vouchers directly to the public for non-commercial use. You have to visit the library in person.

It will also be available at the same time in the ScotlandsPeople Centre in Edinburgh. Unfortunately the current daily rate of £10 will go up to £15 in April although they do offer a one hour free taster session, first come, first served at certain times of the day.

Note also that, unlike in England and Wales, the individual household schedules for the Scottish 1911 census have been destroyed so it will not be possible to view these. Instead the enumeration books have been digitised, similar to that for the 1901 census, except that the entries for each person go across a double page. This includes the 'fertility' questions for married women, that is years married, number of children and how many were still alive.

[FosseWay]

Note also that, unlike in England and Wales, the individual household schedules for the Scottish 1911 census have been destroyed so it will not be possible to view these. Instead the enumeration books have been digitised, similar to that for the 1901 census, except that the entries for each person go across a double page. This includes the 'fertility' questions for married women, that is years married, number of children and how many were still alive.

Was there a difference in how the census was compiled in Scotland, then? The enumerators' books for the E&W 1911 census (i.e. what Ancestry currently displays) are of significantly less use than their 1851-1901 equivalents, because they only record the head of household's name and no profession or birthplace. In that sense, the 1911 enumerators' books are more like those for 1821/31.

Do I understand you correctly that all the same info will be available in the Scottish 1911 enumerators' books as is available from the E&W household schedules, and the only difference from a reliability perspective is that the former may be subject to errors/interpretations introduced by the enumerator, while the latter are what our relatives actually wrote?

[Mort29]

The enumerators' books for the E&W 1911 census (i.e. what Ancestry currently displays)

not the same 'books' - SP's will be the same as earlier census.

To try and answer your last paragraph: the Enumerators books in all census were compiled / copied from the Householders Schedules - all of which up to 1901 were destroyed in E& W (so for eg, Ancestry's Index is transcribed from them).

I dont know if Scotlands schedules were destroyed pre-1911, but they were in 1911, so the Indexing will be transcribed from the Enumerators Books. Unlike E&W 1911, where the actual Schedules filled in by the Householder are available to see and formed the transcription source.

[MonicaL]

A similar post here www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,511283.0.html with some further info. From Ev's post, release date is now quoted as Tuesday 5 April.

Monica

[MonicaL]

Revised costs being announced by Scotlands People:

We are pleased to announce that from 1 April 2011, any credits purchased will be valid for one year rather than 90 days. Remember that you do not lose any un-used credits when the period of validity has expired; when you buy more credits they will simply be added to your existing credits.

Since we launched ScotlandsPeople back in 2002 we have kept the cost of 30 credits to £6. We also launched the provision of Extracts for modern statutory records back in 2008 and the cost of an Extract purchased on line has remained at £10.

From 1 April 2011 the cost of 30 credits will rise to £7 and the cost of an Extract will rise to £12. These changes have been necessary to help fund the flexibility and availability of our services as well as fund the cost of providing an Extract and were approved by the Scottish Parliament through the Registration Services (Fees) Amendment (Scotland) Regulations 2010.

Please note that it will still cost 1 credit to view up to 25 indexes and 5 credits to view an image of the statutory or census records. It will also cost 5 credits to view the page for the forthcoming 1911 census when it is released on 5 April 2011.

Monica

[Seoras]

Monica,credits I purchase don't usually last longer than one hour

George.

[MonicaL]

What's another £1 per hour then, George 

[Seoras]

Not much Monica,still I think I will purchase heavily on March 31st.

George.