Good news for those researching twentieth century U.K. ancestors! I received the following note from Garrick Webster, Editor of Your Family Tree Magazine:
I wouldn't normally email you like this but persistence from one of our readers, and pestering from Your Family Tree, has resulted in a change of government policy. The reader is Guy Etchells, and our writer who worked in it is Andrew Chapman.
The National Archives has been sticking to a 100-year closure ruling on old census records meaning that the 1911 Census will only see the light of day in 2012. But, our Guy took his case to a commission and won!
Effective next month you'll be able to request information from 1911 Census records for a fee, and they're going to start putting the 1911 Census online three years early in 2009 (though not in its entirety).
The story is here: http://www.yourfamilytreemag.co.uk/page/yft?entry=view_the_1911_census_early
The magazine itself isn't claiming credit for this - there have been petitions, polls, letters to MPs from the public etc for a while - but we have been on the case on this story for a long time. So it's good to see some results. Great work from Guy and Andrew.
GW
Garrick Webster
Editor, Your Family Tree
