Tracing your tree – using the census

It's worth spending £7 to buy copies of the birth, marriage and death certificates of your ancestors.
They are the crucial "building blocks" of your family tree.
But once your research has got you back to the year 1901, there is another major source of information – the census.
A census is taken every ten years and is a complete snapshot of the population on one particular night.
The first detailed census was taken in 1841, and since then, every ten years a wonderfully detailed list has been compiled, giving the names, addresses, ages, occupations and places of birth for every single person in England, Wales and Scotland.
Because they contain such detailed personal information, the census books are kept under lock and key in the National Archives for 100 years, but after that they're released for public view.
This means that we can look at the 1901 census, but that we will have to wait until 2012 before we can use the census of 1911.
Where do you go to find these census records?
If you use the Internet, visit www.ancestry.co.uk *, where you'll find every census from 1841 to 1901. They can be accessed for a small fee.
Without the Internet, you'll need to visit the local library near where your family lived – so if your ancestors were fishermen from Brixham in Devon, you'll need to book your holidays down south.