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The original census returns are not available for public searching. But they are available on microfilm rolls and on the internet. Microfilm copies can be searched at TNA, Mormon Family History Centres, and many archives and libraries have films covering their area. Full details are in J. Gibson and E. Hampson’s Census returns 1841–1891 in microform; a directory to local holdings in Great Britain, Channel islands, Isle of Man (FFHS, 1994), 6th edition.

For many decades, family history societies worked on indexing their local census returns. Some indexes just gave reference numbers and others were almost complete transcriptions. Many of these indexes are still available in local archives, from the societies concerned (see www.findmypast.co.uk) or in major genealogical libraries, such as the SoG and IHGS. They are covered by J. Gibson and E. Hampson’s Marriage and Census Indexes for Family Historians (FFHS, 2000).

There are fiche indexes, compiled by the Mormons, to the 1881 census, and some counties in the 1851 census. They were indexed in a number of creative ways: you can scan through the index of everyone in with your surname, or you can search by birthplace, enabling you, for example, to easily pick out all the Smiths who were born in a certain village.

Firms such as www.my-history.co.uk, S&N’s www.genealogysupplies.com and www.archivecdbooks.org sell CDs of sections of census returns, with varying degrees of search facilities. The online censuses have largely superseded these, unless you want to make an in-depth study of your ancestral village, or area, and spend a lot of time studying how all the families were interrelated, in which case they have a lot to commend them.

The first census to be indexed online was the 1881 census, which appeared on the Mormons’ site www.familysearch.org back in 1999 – so many people logged on that the site crashed. This was the first time that the press realised that genealogy had progressed from a moderately popular hobby, to a mainstream interest. The site provides a free transcription of the 1881 census for England and Wales, but not images of the original pages.

The Mormons’ success encouraged commercial firms to start indexing the other censuses. The 1901 census appeared in 2002 (with similar computer problems – so many people logged on that the site crashed and took several months to restore!). Now, you have a choice of which pay-to-view site to use to gain access to the fully-indexed censuses from 1841 to 1901, and to online images of the original pages. Foremost are www.genesreunited.co.uk, www.ancestry.co.uk, www.findmypast.com (1841–1891 only) and www.1901censusonline.com (1901 only). www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/census offers access to the www.ancestry.co.uk censuses for a cheaper rate than the www.ancestry.co.uk site offers directly.

The site www.freecen.org.uk is a growing database of census returns which have been transcribed by volunteers and made freely available. A directory of other free census records is at www.censusfinder.com. If you find what you want, then you win: if you do not, do not make any assumptions about what has or has not been indexed, and seek what you want in the pay-to-view sites.