Monday, December 14, 2015

1891 New South Wales Census Records

FamilySearch.org has indexed records from the 1891 New South Wales census. This census lists the head of household, street address, and the number of male and female members of the household. There is also a separate column listing the “Number of Chinese and Aborigines” in the household, and another column for comments from the census takers. The collection can be searched by first name and last name.  You can also browse the 21,315 images that make up the collection.

Number of images per district
 Like many other Australian researchers I have long lamented the lack of complete census records available, and have joined others in urging our government to change its policy of destroying census records after statistical data has been extracted.  It is heartening to see a significant surviving record set now digitised and available - even if it doesn't cover any of my direct ancestors (sigh).

An example page from Albury