1901 census goes ... offline

The 1901 census was published online for the first time today but the website is already down due to overwhelming demand.

People hoping to find out what their relatives were doing 100 years ago can search data put online by the Public Record Office (PRO). But despite adding extra server capacity, the new site still can't cope with initial demand.

A statement from the PRO says: "The demand has been so great since the service went live that the site is currently busy. We apologise to new users trying to access this increasingly popular site and advise you to keep trying."

Together with all its indexes, the Oracle-powered database occupies over 100Gb of disk space. The images, which average 220Kb each, occupy nearly 400Gb.

The task of digitising the census was given to project management specialist QinetiQ, a government-owned company. The £7m contract was awarded in November 1999 and runs for 10 years.

QinetiQ also has an option to digitise other census data taken between 1841 and 1901. Work has already begun on the 1891 census.

Alison Webster, census project manager at the PRO, said: "Our customers want to be able to look at images of individuals' details online. With an image of the [original census] form, it's physically there and can be studied.

"Of course, in 1901, you didn't fill in the form yourself. Each district had an enumerator who filled it in, so it is only as good as his or her interpretation."

QinetiQ will expand the service throughout the year, and will not be limited to digitising other censuses, the company said.

The PRO also plans to add local history information and is considering approaching local companies for sponsorship so that information could be available to schools without charge.

www.census.pro.gov.uk