Your 1911 census success stories

The release of the 1911 census has unlocked thousands of families' hidden mysteries, and created even more questions for many. What have people found?

LONG-LOST RELATIVES

Denise Wynn, who lives in Vancouver, Canada, took advantage of the time difference to get online as the UK slept.

"I'm originally from Nottingham, although we moved to Canada when I was 11. Although I've traced my mum's entire family back to the late 1600s, my dad's side are all relative newcomers to Nottingham and it's this side of the family I was looking for.

I did a blanket search for anyone with the surname Wynn, born in Nottingham. Up popped my great-great aunt, Eliza Isabella Wynn, aged 77 and living in Paddington. The last information I had on Eliza was from the 1871 census, when she was in Nottingham and working as a milliner. Previous searches for any possible marriage or death after 1871 had hit a brick wall. So I was tickled to discover her alive and well and in London. Now I'll need to revisit the 1881, 1891 and 1901 censuses to find out where she was.

Another relative, Gertrude Denny

The fantastic thing with the 1911 census is that people had to put down how many children they had, how many still living, and how many died. It's obvious that my great-granddad didn't follow the directions to index people living in the household, as he's listed his two eldest daughters who were both dead. He even shows their ages, as they would have been had they lived. Armed with their names, Florence and Emily, I was able to locate their births and deaths.

Following my discoveries, my dad called his cousin Una in Nottingham, and dropped quite the bombshell, that there are two previously unknown aunts. Poor Una still can't believe that the family kept this hidden for all these years.

The 1911 census has been thrilling for me, because it's brought the family one step closer. These are people I've either met, or have heard about all of my life."

GREAT-GRANDFATHER IN AN INSTITUTION

Jeremy Knowles, from Skipton, got into uncovering his family history when he went in search of information for his mother.

"All I ever knew about my Nana's past was that she was brought up by an aunt. She would never talk about her childhood, and even my dad could only say that she was 'in service' from the age of 13. So a few years ago I decided to investigate.

She was born Mary Alice Hudson, in 1906 in Salford, Manchester. When she married my grandfather, James Kenneth Knowles, in 1932, she was living in Higher Broughton and working as a domestic servant.

Mary Hudson, Jeremy's Nana

I have been eagerly waiting for the launch of the 1911 census to see where my Nana would have been, since at the time her parents may have not been together. Sure enough, after a quick search the truth was discovered. My Nana was living with her mother, a domestic charwoman, married with two children. Wow, my nana had an elder brother. It said he was seven, and was working, doing domestic work. Whereas my nana, being only five, was listed as 'going to school'. I haven't yet found out when her brother died, so I don't know if he has any descendants.

And I discovered something else. My Nana's grandfather, James Cuddy, lived from 1851 until 1921. He spent his life in Salford working as a velvet finisher in dye works, and as a dock labourer. His wife died in 1905 so I searched for James, and I found him in an institution. But I can't tell whether it was a prison, a workhouse, or something else just yet, as a deeper search is so expensive.

Still, for now, I've learnt a little more about my Nana's parents, but I still want to know what happened to her mother, her brother, and her half-siblings who I'd found out about in previous research, to see if I can find out the complete story."

FAMILY RIFTS

Karen Cowley from the Isle of Man is intrigued by her family's past, as some lived in Jack the Ripper's prowling ground.

"I've just been trying to learn more about my great-grandparents Vernon and Nancy. I knew that Nancy was born in 1892 in London, and that her mother was born in Whitechapel in 1865. Her family lived at 10 Berner St during the late 1800s around the time of Jack the Ripper. In fact the Lizzie Stride murder took place in their very street.

From the census I found out where Vernon lived but no idea why he lived apart from Nancy, so it's turned into an even deeper mystery. All we know was that he was a lodger so there is a lot more to uncover.

Vernon and Nancy

An intriguing thing I did find out was that his father was an umbrella maker. Looking at the number of children borne of my great-great-grandparents' marriage, there are four or five that I had no idea about. There were two in one family that I was totally unaware of. They weren't known about, or at least no-one ever talked about them.

My mum's taken everything I discovered to my grandmother, as it's her family, to see if it stirs up any long-lost memories. There have been a few surprises that she didn't ever know about, such as a rift in the family as the parents weren't very good to their kids. Out of seven of them, four emigrated to Australia and the others spread out across the UK. The plot thickens all the time, it's never simple."

FUTURE CENSUSES

The release of the 1911 census has been immensely popular so far, says Elaine Collins, commercial director of findmypast.com. By midnight on Tuesday, there had been 3.4m searches and 17.4m page views.

But it will be a long wait to delve into the next census, taken in 1921 and not releases until 2022 under the 100-year rule. And the 1931 census was destroyed in a warehouse fire in 1942 - the result of an accidental blaze, rather than wartime bombing. After this, the Office of National Statistics took over the storage of all censuses.

There was no census taken in 1941 so the next known record of the population, taken in 1951, will not be available for public use until January 2052.