Everyone is eagerly awaiting the release of the English and Welsh 1921 Census … am I right?

Well, big news from Findmypast, they have just released a statement in relation to this stating that …

Despite Covid restrictions impacting various aspects of the project, Findmypast are still on course to publish the census online in early 2022. Provided there are no further interruptions to the current rate of digitisation, Findmypast state that they are confident that original project timelines will be met.

It was back in March 2019 when Findmypast announced that they had been awarded the contract to publish the England and Wales 1921 census records online, and they gave a launch date of January 2022. Since then, the company has been at work scanning and transcribing the records, but the project suffered a three-month shutdown in 2020 due to COVID-19, and has resumed working, but at a “much-reduced staffing capacity”. When running at full capacity, there are more than 30 Findmypast employees working on the records.

Findmypast expects to create close to 20 million images with this Census, and while every possible measure is being taken to ensure this continues at the required pace, the need to protect both staff and the documents has resulted in processes in some production areas being slowed down.

While is eagerly awaiting the release of the 1921 Census, I have no doubt that we all understand the need for everyone to stay safe. So we appreciate their efforts in keeping the project running while doing it safely.

This 1921 Census project is simply HUGE. The records take up more than 1.6 linear kilometres of shelving, so the term “MAMMOTH UNDERTAKING” might be a much more accurate way to describe this. There are 28,000 bound volumes of original householder Returns containing information on the nearly 38 million men, women and children living in England and Wales at the time.

Findmypast said:

Findmypast is committed to providing users with the best possible experience and launching in full in early 2022.

That’s great news from the Findmypast team, and I have no doubt that we’ll be hearing more about this later in the year. So stay tuned for more updates.

Family Tree Magazine UK, has some more information on the Findmypast England and Wales 1921 Census announcement , so click here to read their article.