TNA podcast: Behind the scenes: two centuries of census-taking

Audrey Collins, who will be one of the major speakers at BIFHSGO conference in September, gave this talk last March in the TNA lecture series. Audrey drops in a lot of anecdotal material, including a look at the army of civil servants, temporary clerks, registrars, enumerators and others, and the part they played in this astonishing feat of organisation once a decade; incidents and accidents along the way, including the only time advertising was allowed on census material.

There are also several hints that may help if you're having trouble finding an ancestor or making sense of the census. Audrey give high praise to the University of Essex website www.histpop.org.uk which has a lot of additional background material including original documents.

Audrey's talks for BIFHSGO will be Tracing Your English Ancestors in The National Archives; The Fleet Registers: Clandestine Marriages in London 1667–1754; and The London Gazette: Not Just the Brave and the Bankrupt.

Catch the podcast at http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/podcasts/census-behind-the-scenes.htm