Findmypast share 1921 project update
Findmypast has shared an update on the progress of their project to digitise and publish the 1921 census of England & Wales
Despite Covid restrictions impacting various aspects of the project, Findmypast are still on course to publish the census online in early 2022. Findmypast state that provided there are no further interruptions to the current rate of digitisation, they are confident that original project timelines will be met.
The project team is still hopeful for a January launch although progress has been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic and timings could change should there be any further developments relating to Coronavirus.
In an update provided to Family Tree, Findmypast said: ‘Findmypast is committed to providing users with the best possible experience and launching [the 1921 Census] in full in early 2022.
‘Earlier in 2020 lockdown restrictions led to a three-month complete shutdown of the project, and while operations were back up and running as soon as permitted, the subsequent need to work at a muchreduced staffing capacity has affected project timelines.
‘The ongoing need for social distancing, within the confines of the project’s requirements, means that while Findmypast are doing everything possible to limit the impact of Covid-19, this valuable work is still being conducted in a highly changeable environment.
‘The safety and wellbeing of the project team and the security of the information recorded by the census have been of the utmost importance throughout. While some processes have been successfully adapted, the strict measures in place to protect both staff and documents has meant that developing alternative methods or conducting any work off-site has not been possible.’
A vast undertaking
The vast scope and scale and the skilled, manual nature of the work involved to bring the census online are also contributing factors.
When running at full operational capacity, more than 30 staff members are required in the conservation and scanning studio, handling fragile physical documents that have remained securely stored for 100 years. Each of the 28,000 volumes must be handled by a trained conservation technician who is responsible for a variety of delicate tasks.
This could include removing any old pins or other objects which can cause damage to the paper, carefully correcting folds that are covering the text, gently teasing apart any pages that have become stuck together, restoring torn pages and checking for and repairing other damage.
Once every page is examined, cleaned and repaired they are passed to Findmypast’s scanning team who create an image of every page as well as any attachments and the front and back covers of each volume. Each image is then quality checked before being stored on a secure server.
When will the census be released?
The project is still on track for a full online release in early 2022, although an exact launch date is yet to be announced. Findmypast, The National Archives and ONS will continue to closely monitor the situation and follow the necessary government guidelines before providing a further update on progress later in the year.