1921 census - Only on Findmypast?

[Crowdfundingforcake]

I have ancestry membership so am a bit miffed - is the census only on FindMyPast? Can't afford £3.50 for every search!

The 1921 records are available to view in person at the National Archives’ reading rooms in Kew, at Manchester Central Library and at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth.

It seems to be £3.50 per record even if you are on FindMyPast.

FMP have exclusive rights to it for the moment, though I'm not sure how long.

Eventually it will be available on Ancestry but they probably need to make enough money from it first - as they said they charge to help pay for the transcriptions.

I'm going to only look for the records I absolutely have to, not spending that much per record!

The exclusive rights last for 3 years. If you are a member you get 10% discount on the cost of accessing the records.

Yes, exclusive to Find My Past. Which is fair enough as they have spent a lot on digitising it all. As others have said it will be eventually free on other platforms and you can access at the National Archives in London, the national Library of Wales and in Manchester too I believe?

Most of my family history is Scottish and the 1921 Scottish census isn't released yet.

I'll just have to be patient (still miffed).

Can't believe how expensive it is per search! I want to look up a few things and I already have the £16/month pro membership. 10% discount for members is a bit of a joke.

@PastMyBestBeforeDate

The exclusive rights last for 3 years. If you are a member you get 10% discount on the cost of accessing the records.

Only if you’ve signed up for the 12 month pro membership.

I think that the pricing model is prohibitive.

The 1939 records were 6.95 each when they were released. It was a huge project that took years to complete at great expense, of course they need to recover that cost. If they weren’t able to records would simply not be transcribed and made available online at all. It’s only fairly recently online access has been possible at all, it wasn’t that long ago you had to go to the record office in person and search the census on microfiche with no search function so you had to know the address first.

People expect instant access to records online now and that comes at a cost.

If they aren't making money on it, expect we'll see discounts or promotional weekends when the buzz dies down in a few months.

I have been doing genealogy for over 30yrs and apart from the initial membership fees and costs if I want a copy of a record it never occurred to me that these records would eventually become subject to the highest bidder. Previous censuses have enabled me to go on such a journey that I will no longer be able to progress - far too expensive. I can't help feeling this is all as a result of the growing interest in family history. Beware of killing the goose....

If they aren't making money on it, expect we'll see discounts or promotional weekends when the buzz dies down in a few months.

I agree. You can imagine the meeting where they argued that the first few weeks would be the only chance they'd get to try pushing their luck.

I find it really shocking that you have to pay for this! They're official records, they should be free. The government should've figured out a way to pay for it or use volunteers rather than turn it over to a private company.

True Abbot. I forgot that!

@dreamingbohemian

I find it really shocking that you have to pay for this! They're official records, they should be free. The government should've figured out a way to pay for it or use volunteers rather than turn it over to a private company.

They are still available for free at the records centres as they always have been. You are paying for the enormous amount of work and cost of scanning and transcribing for the convenience of accessing it online. The records were not created for the purposes of genealogy so government money doesn’t need to be spent on making it available online for a purpose completely different to the intended one. Government funding shouldn’t be used for funding hobbies. It’s no different to paying £11 per birth marriage or death record, which we pay even for our own.

They're free at exactly 3 places in the whole UK, so that limits a huge number of people.

Census records are not just for hobbies, all sorts of people make use of them for research and planning purposes.

Even if we have to pay, I would rather see that money go to the government than a private company. It's not like we pay £11 to GLS for our marriage certificates.

But all the census records in my home country are free so I am probably biased.

Tbh i think its reasonably priced. The 1939 register was extortionate by contrast when it was first released and i thought it was above my price point whereas i think theyve got this one about right.

You still have to pay for births and deaths through the GRO at £7 for a pdf. And i think marriages are more (its been a while since i bought a marriage cert).

And if you compare it with how Scotland does its BMD service its good value. Scottish People drives me nuts and its so expensive to do proper Scottish research.

You can also find out a fair amount with the search facility alone (in a way which you cannot with the Scottish records - mainly cos theres so many fewer scottish surnames!).

Ive found it useful even without paying, just to clarify a few bits and pieces because it does give you age and place of birth on your search results.

I view it that if you want a record that much, you would be willing to spend £2.50.

Theres a few ive waited 10 years for.

If you don't mind waiting then its not a big enough deal to get worked up about.

It's mad what you can find on find my past though. I decided to do my family tree the other day and with a day or two i had connected 250 people in my tree. I was looking at images of actual birth records, written by someone in the 1600s, that findmypast has transcribed. Every photo has been sharpened and enhanced so they can be read. That kind of detail blows my mind. Every document has been transcribed and photographed and it appears within a second at the press of a button. Why should that come for free?

You could always go and do it the hard way by going to the places where you can find this stuff for free.

It was like this with the 1911 census to begin with too, and then it wound up on Ancestry etc.

Goldenwolffleece, not expecting it for free - I pay an annual subscription to ancestry.

Oh darn it, I'm also on Ancestry and was just about to come on and ask if someone on FMP could do me a look up for the 1921 census - didn't realise FMP subscribers have to pay for it too. A 10% discount on 3 pounds 50 is pathetic when you're already paying for the full annual cost. I certainly can't go along in person as I'm not in the UK. And paying for UK stuff from outside the country has now got far more difficult since Brexit (potential extra charges). Balderdash!

@Schlobbob

FMP have exclusive rights to it for the moment, though I'm not sure how long.

Eventually it will be available on Ancestry but they probably need to make enough money from it first - as they said they charge to help pay for the transcriptions.

I'm going to only look for the records I absolutely have to, not spending that much per record!

The 1911 Census was exclusive to Ancestry but they gave access to it at all levels of membership, Find My Past are only allowing access to 1921 to those paying the highest rate. If a friends are intersted in the 1921 then joining jointly would be a way forward as long as you don't all log on at the same time!

@TragicallyUnbeyachted

It was like this with the 1911 census to begin with too, and then it wound up on Ancestry etc.

Ancestry gave access to 1911 to all levels of membership.

@Moonlaserbearwolf

Can't believe how expensive it is per search! I want to look up a few things and I already have the £16/month pro membership. 10% discount for members is a bit of a joke.

I didn't realise that! I assumed that the pro-level would allow access to it, as Ancestry do, there's no point in being a member of Find my Past.