1931 Census. Many years ago I was told that that census was burnt because of those in the storage area were smoking. Maybe, possibly, before my time.
Yes the 1931 Census for England & Wales was destroyed by a fire at the storage warehouse, despite there being fire watchers on duty, however in reality much of the census was not burnt to ash but so soaked by the water used to put the blaze out it could not be salvaged. I have a report in my records that give further details which I think I downloaded from Histpop website
http://www.histpop.org/ohpr/servlet/The good news is the Scottish 1931 census was archived in Scotland and escaped destruction and will be released in January 2032.
Have we had a release date for 1921 census, yet?
Thanks
2mm
It will be released on 2nd January 2022, but could be open online for years if the genealogical community had supported the campaign to release it early.
There are very sound reasons for my claiming that, just as there were sound reasons for my challenging the refusal to release the 1911 census and the 1939 National Registration.
It is academic now but as well as the commonly cited points that most people bring up about people not expecting it to be kept secret as earlier census had been released early and that the 100 year rule had only been instigated in 1966 (from memory). There was a very significant point that most people overlook, the 1921 Census had an option for people who had “privacy” concerns could for the first time fill in a seperate “private return”.
These “private returns” could have been excluded for the early release thereby honouring any real concerns about privacy a few had.
As the song says "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be).
Cheers
Guy
