We have just published the 1881 Scottish census on findmypast.co.uk

The census recorded the population of Scotland at over 3.7 million in 1881 and we’ve freshly transcribed these records to ensure your ancestors’ details are accurately recorded.

We’ve already published the 1841-1871 Scottish censuses on findmypast.co.uk. You’ll be keen to search the 1881 Scottish census for the ancestors you’ve traced in the previous censuses. If you haven’t been able to find your ancestors in the earlier Scottish censuses, now’s the time to search the 1881 census to see if they make an appearance.

Our high quality transcriptions make it easy to discover the crucial details about your ancestors’ lives. It is not possible to view the original census images on findmypast.co.uk, due to the General Register Office for Scotland’s licensing regulations.

We will publish future Scottish census on the site in the coming weeks.

Search the 1881 Scottish census now

We have just published the 1871 census for Scotland on findmypast.co.uk

This means more than 3.3 million new records for you to search. We have freshly transcribed the records so that your search results are the most accurate possible.

The high quality of our transcriptions makes discovering the crucial details about your ancestors’ lives quick and easy. It is not possible to view the original census images on findmypast.co.uk, due to the General Register Office for Scotland’s licensing regulations.

This is the latest release in our ongoing project to bring you closer to your Scottish ancestors. Expect to see further Scottish censuses published on findmypast.co.uk in the New Year, following the 1841-1871 Scottish census records already added to the site.

Search the 1871 Scottish census now

Our resident expert Stephen Rigden, pictured below, answers your queries.

From Brenda Lacey:

‘My late father received a letter in 1974 containing details of the ‘Tyzack’ family from a Mr V Tyzack. As the address was a London office, I have been unable to trace his whereabouts or this family, if he is now deceased.

The information given states that his family lived at Wells Next the Sea, North Norfolk. I have found the tombstone of his Grandfather Edward Tyzack in a churchyard at Buttlands, Wells next the Sea. I have also learnt the history of the ‘Tyzack’ who lived at Little Walsingham via a local historian, but I am stuck with regards to moving forward from Edward Tyzack.

Mr V Tyzack is still a mystery, although he states that a dozen Tyzacks lived at Wells when he was a child, i.e., cousins. Can you please help?’

Stephen says:

‘Thanks for your emailed question.

My first comment is that you are very fortunate! The surname you are researching – Tyzack – is unusual and distinctive. This means that a number of broad, cross-database searches are possible which simply would not be available to you if you had to pursue a more common name.

If using findmypast.co.uk, one way to start is simply to do a very basic cross-database search from the home page. Even if you just type in the last name and search on that, you get a manageable number of results, arranged by record type, which you can then look at by clicking on the record counts (number of results) of each.

Of course, you can narrow down the search by using first name as well, i.e., by searching for Edward Tyzack and looking at all results. You should be able to identify his birth entry from his age at death (you can find his death entry easily, as you know when he was buried), and from there narrow down possible marriages to one or two candidates.

One factor which helps is that earlier this year findmypast.co.uk published fully name-indexed birth, marriage and death indexes. This really speeds up the search for you. Once you have his marriage, you can then look for the births of issue of his marriage, then for their marriages and deaths in turn, continuing the process towards the present day and building up the family tree. Unless some events took place overseas and are not recorded in the overseas BMDs on findmypast.co.uk, you should be able to reliably piece together Edward’s tree to the present day.

When searching census or civil registration records for England, use Walsingham as the registration district up to 1938. For BMD records from 1939 to 1975, however, Wells next the Sea is in Fakenham registration district. You should probably consider London districts as well, given the known family movement to the capital.

As for the London-based professional Mr V Tyzack, keep under consideration that V may have been the initial of his middle name rather than of his actual first name. You can do a Living Relatives search on findmypast.co.uk. If you cannot find the mysterious V, you may be able to find other relatives you have identified as part of the family tree reconstruction process described above.’

If you’d like to send your question to our experts, please register or opt to receive newsletters in My Account. Unfortunately our experts only have time to answer a few queries each month. If yours wasn’t answered this time, you could be lucky next month!

Yorkshire Day is held on 1 August every year and is a celebration of the culture and history of the county. We’re getting in the spirit here at findmypast.co.uk and have found some lovely Yorkshire examples in our records.

First up is the family history of the newest member of the royal family, Mike Tindall. Tindall married Zara Phillips, the Queen’s granddaughter, on Saturday at Canongate Kirk in Edinburgh.

As with the marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton earlier this year, this weekend’s royal wedding was an example of a royal marrying out of the upper classes. We can see Mike Tindall’s working class Yorkshire roots by taking a look at his ancestors in the 1911 census.

Mike Tindall's maternal family - please click to enlarge

Tindall’s maternal great-great-grandparents Charles and Fanny Machell were living in Yeadon in the West Riding of Yorkshire at the time of the 1911 census. Their census form reveals that Fanny had given birth to a staggering 13 children, three of whom had sadly died by 1911.

Charles and Fanny were living with nine of their surviving offspring in 1911. Charles was employed as a stone mason at a stone quarry, while the eldest of the Machell brood were employed as nippers, woolliers and twisters at a cloth mill. The census form also reveals that their property only had five rooms – rather small for such a large family!

Mike Tindall's paternal family - please click to enlarge

Tindall’s paternal great-great-grandmother Sarah Ann Tindall can also be spotted in the 1911 census. She was a widow at this point in her life and was living in Skipton in the West Riding of Yorkshire with two daughters, three grandsons and a boarder.

Sarah’s daughters, Mike Tindall’s great-great-aunts, appear to have been rather entrepreneurial. Each was recorded as being a ‘joint restaurant proprietress’ in the 1911 census.

Check back later today for another Yorkshire example from our records and enjoy Yorkshire day!

We’ve been looking into the records of the legendary Florence Nightingale to mark the centenary of her death today.

Nightingale was a visionary health reformer who led the nurses during the Crimean War (1853-1856), which is mainly remembered for three things: the Charge of the Light Brigade, mismanagement in the British Army and Florence Nightingale.

As well as finding out about Florence, we’ve also unearthed fascinating documents on Edwin Hughes, who in 1923 became the last survivor of the Charge of the Light Brigade until his death on 18 May 1927. Hughes was buried with full military honours in Layton Cemetery in Blackpool.

Florence Nightingale

In the census for England and Wales, taken every 10 years, Florence Nightingale can be found listed from 1871 to 1901 living at 10 South Street, St. George Hanover Square, London. In the 1861 census she is found living at 30, Old Burlington Street, St. James, London as a lodger, aged 40:

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Her occupation is listed as a former hospital nurse and she lived with just one other person, her housekeeper, Mary Beatley (48). In the 1841 census Florence, then aged 20, can be found living with her parents in Embley, Wellow, Hampshire. This was the family home from 1825, before she started to pursue her nursing career.

After her death in London on 13 August 1910 her body was brought by train back to Romsey, and her coffin carried from the station to the church at East Wellow where she is buried.

In the later 1881 and 1891 censuses, Nightingale lists her occupation in greater detail as Directress of Nightingale Fund for Training Hospital Nurses - in the 1891 census she was 70 years old and still working:

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The fund was set up as a direct result of her work in the Crimean War. In all the census entries she is listed either as single or unmarried, further documenting the fact she never married.

In the final census that was to be taken in her lifetime, the 1901 census, she is listed as living on her own means; she was 80 years old, and still living at 10 South Street, Hanover Square with five servants - a cook, a ‘maid domestic’, two ‘housemaid domestics’ and a ‘kitchen maid domestic’. Her housemaid Alice Moody and domestic maid, Ellen Kate Tugby were both from Wellow, Hampshire, where Florence was brought up.

Edwin Hughes - the last survivor of the Charge of the Light Brigade

We have also found Troop Sergeant Major Edwin Hughes, known as ‘Balaclava Ned’, the last survivor of the famous Charge of the Light Brigade during the Crimean War in the Chelsea Pensioner British Army Service Records, which we have published online for the first time, in association with The National Archives.

The collection currently comprises over 4 million full colour images of the service records of soldiers in the British Army in receipt of a pension administered by The Royal Hospital Chelsea, and who were discharged between the dates 1760 and 1900.

Each individual soldier’s record consists of a minimum of four pages, and can be up to 20, full of fascinating personal details. Edwin Hughes has eight pages of records charting his time with the military in great detail. Each page has been painstakingly filmed by hand by FamilySearch, our partner in this two-year project.

Hughes was born in Wrexham, Wales on 12 December 1830, and died in Blackpool on 14 May 1927, aged 96. In the service records he was listed as a shoemaker before and after he joined the 13th Light Dragoons (later known as 13th Hussars), part of the Light Brigade, at Liverpool on 1 November 1852, as 1506 Private Hughes. In 1854 he went to fight in the Crimean War for two years in Russia and he was also based in Turkey for two years 11 months.

He was awarded the British Crimea Medal, the Turkish Crimea Medal, as well as The Silver Medal for long service and good conduct. The Chelsea Pensioner Service Records also list his progression through the army. In 1858 Hughes was promoted to Corporal, in 1863 to Sergeant, and in 1871 to Troop Sergeant Major.

On 24 November 1873 he was discharged from the Army at Colchester Garrison at his own request having completed 21 years and 24 days’ service. His discharge papers describe him as being 5 feet nine inches tall, of fresh complexion with sandy hair and hazel eyes:

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The day after leaving the Army, Hughes enlisted in the Worcestershire Yeomanry (a mounted volunteer unit), staying as Sergeant-Instructor until 5 January 1886. He was discharged on account of ‘old age’.

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Debra Chatfield, our marketing manager (pictured below), said:

‘Finding both Florence and Edwin within the records is fascinating, as we get to imagine them on a more personal level, adding to the legends that already surround them. Collections like the censuses and the British Army service records can enable everyone researching their family tree to add the same level of personal details to their own ancestors - truly bringing to life their family history.

‘Using family history websites, such as findmypast.co.uk, is more popular than ever in the UK. With the amount of historical records that are now available to search and view online people are not only able to find out about their own family trees, but historical events and figures through history.’

Following Monday’s episode of Who Do You Think You Are? which featured Bruce Forsyth, we’ve found his ancestors in the census records at findmypast.co.uk. We’re sure you found the programme as fascinating as we did - read on to see Bruce’s controversial great-grandfather in our census records.

Bruce Forsyth

In the 1851 census you can see Bruce’s great-grandfather, Joseph Forsyth Johnson, with his mother and grandfather (a florist/nurseryman – not a gardener as Bruce’s cousin said in the programme). They were living in West Ella, Yorkshire:

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On the 1861 census you can see Joseph Forsyth Johnson (employed as a gardener) again living with his wife Elizabeth and her parents in Gilling, Yorkshire:

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The 1881 census shows Elizabeth (working as a housekeeper) with children, living in Wilmslow, Cheshire. Joseph Forsyth Johnson was not with the family:

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Elizabeth appears again on the 1891 census in Tottenham with her children  John (Bruce’s grandfather) and Christina, who wrote the diary Bruce received in the programme. John was working as a warehouse porter and Christina as a kitchen maid. Joseph Forsyth Johnson was not with the family again - as Bruce discovered, he had hot-footed it over to the USA with a younger woman and was enjoying considerable success and prosperity as a landscape gardener.

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We’re looking forward to the rest of the series!

Throughout the World Cup, all the records* on findmypast.co.uk will be completely free to view whenever England play a match. England will play the USA this evening at 7.30pm so from 7pm to 10pm tonight findmypast.co.uk will be completely free.

Here’s the competition question we’d like you to answer for the first part of the competition. Our census records will help you:

What was the recorded occupation of William Matt, aged 36, living in Easthampstead, Berkshire in the 1911 census?

This next bit won’t get you any extra points, but if you can tell us the meaning of William’s occupation we’ll be very impressed!

The prize: a digital camera, vouchers for a year’s Full subscription plus much more.

Keep your eye on the blog for a competition question to answer each time England play. For a chance to win the prize, send us your answers to all the competition questions when England get knocked out of the competition - we’ll give you details of how to enter then. Remember to make a note of your answer to each part of the competition – you’ll need to send us your answers in one bundle after England get knocked out.

You have until 12 July to send us your answers and there can only be one winner. We’ll pick the winner at random from the entries that contain all of the correct answers - the judge’s decision is final. We’ll publish the winner on our blog on 13 July along with the answers to the questions.

Good luck!

*All records available using our Full subscription (including the 1911 Census) will be free: Living Relatives searches and Memorial scrolls are not included.

We have increased the amount of credits you will be charged to view an 1841-1901 census record from 3 to 5. This is the first time we’ve increased our credit pricing in 4 years and we hope you’ll understand our need to reflect the current market rates in our pricing. The 1881 census transcript images will remain free to view.

Findmypast.co.uk has complete census records 1841-1911 - more records than anyone else. We also have more searchable fields than anyone else which makes finding your ancestors as straightforward as possible.

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