Frequently Asked Questions

Subscribing Back to top

Q. How can I find out what records and subscriptions you have available on the website?

A. A full list of the subscriptions available can be found at: https://ukcensusonline.com/compare/

Q. What subscriptions are available?

A. Our subscriptions are credit free so there is no limit on the amount of searches you can make, or how many records/images you can view:

Births, Marriage and Deaths (1837-2005)

The BMD subscription gives you credit free access to BMDs (GRO Indexes England and Wales 1837-2005) on a monthly, quarterly, six monthly or annual recurring basis.

Census (1841-1911)

Census (1841-1911) subscriptions give you access to English and Welsh Census Transcripts and Images for the years 1841-1911. Available on a monthly, quarterly, six monthly or annual recurring basis.

Census (1841-1911) & BMDs (1837-2005)

The combined Census and BMDs subscription provides access to BMDs (GRO Indexes England and Wales 1837-2005) as well as access to the Census (1841-1911) for England and Wales which provides Census Transcripts and Images for the years 1841-1911. Available on a monthly, quarterly, six monthly or annual recurring basis.


Signing In Back to top

Q. I can’t log in with my email address and password

A. Check the spelling and format of the email address you’re using and make sure it is the one you signed up with. Also note that the password is case sensitive, so if you signed up with a password of "PAsSwOrD" it will not match "password". Cookies need to be enabled for you to log in, for more information on cookies click here. Try logging in again here.

Q. What should I do if I’ve forgotten my password?

A. You need to click the Forgotten Password link in the login box to have a password reset link emailed to you. There is a shortcut to it here.

Q. How do I change my email login address?

A. Simply log in to your account with UKCensusOnline and click on ‘Account’ , ‘My Account’. You can then edit your details from the menu on the left hand side.

Q. Keep me signed in option

A. If you tick this option you will be able to stay signed in to the website without the need to fill in your login details each time. This should last a number of days or until you select 'Logout'. Two browsers may be signed in persistently at one time. Signing in a third browser will overwrite the oldest login.

When the ‘logout’ option is selected all concurrent logins are removed. If you are on a shared computer do not tick this option or the next person to use the computer will be able to visit the website with your account.


Account Back to top

Q. How do I check my subscription details?

A. Log in to your account with UKCensusOnline, click on ‘Account’ in the top right hand corner, then choose ‘My Account’ from the drop down menu. Scroll down to ‘Subscription History’ to find details about your subscription:

Subscription- describes the level of your subscription and the billing cycle.

Status - confirms if your subscription is Active, Suspended or Expired.

Start date - displays the day that your subscription became effective.

Expiry date - displays the expiry date of your subscription.

Q. Can I upgrade my subscription to view more records?

A. If you wish to upgrade your level of subscription to access other data such as parish records, you can do so by upgrading your subscription to access data on our sister website www.TheGenealogist.co.uk. You can upgrade to a Diamond Annual or six monthly subscription here: https://ukcensusonline.com/compare/upgrade/

To view the Diamond coverage on TheGenealogist please see the following; https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/coverage/?type=diamond

Q. How do I cancel my subscription?

A. To cancel a subscription we request that you contact us at least two weeks before the subscription is due to renew. You can use the Contact Us page to email your cancellation request or call us during normal office hours on 01722 717006 (Mon - Fri, 9am - 5pm).

Q. How do I unsubscribe from email newsletters?

A. To unsubscribe from our Email news mailing list, click on ‘Account’, ‘My Account’ then ‘Edit My Details’, scroll down to the email news options, tick the appropriate box and click ‘Update’.

Q. How do I delete my account with UKCensusOnline?

A. Please email us with your request for the right of erasure under the General Data Protection Regulation. Please note that when you make a purchase with us, some of your details such as Name, Address and Email Address are kept for a number legal reasons, such as proving you made a purchase and for accounting. We need to keep these details for 10 years from your last payment. However we can deactivate your account and mark it for deletion, and once this period has elapsed, your personal details will be removed.

Removal of your personal data will be from all “Live” systems. Personal Data that exists within backups will be put “beyond use” in accordance with guidance from the ICO.

Q. What Information does your site collect and store about me?

A. Please see our Privacy policy for full details: Privacy Policy.

Q. UKCensusOnline Address Search

A. Unfortunately, there is not a specific address search on UKCensusOnline. You can however enter an address into the ‘Keywords’ box when searching to help narrow down your results.

Our sister site, TheGenealogist.co.uk, has many more records and search features, including an address search for the census. This allows you to see details of occupants living at a particular address/street. They also have a much wider range of data, you can see full coverage on their website at: https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/compare

Q. Census Substitute

A. The 1921 Census Substitute data advertised on the UKCensusOnline page: https://ukcensusonline.com/census/1921/ is available as part of the Diamond subscription on our sister website www.TheGenealogist.co.uk

This resource covers a large number of county directories which have been transcribed to produce a searchable resource. This appears under Census Records as the 1921 Census Substitute on TheGenealogist and they encompass a period currently not served by a published census.

The fully transcribed, searchable records allow researchers to:

These 1921 directories cover Nottingham, Glasgow, Leicestershire & Rutland, Derby, Shropshire, Kent and add to those already released for Aberdeen, Bath, Berkshire, Bradford and Surrounding Districts, Bristol and Suburbs, Brixton and Clapham, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Channel Islands, Cheshire, Cumberland, Dorset, Durham, Hessle, Hull, Lincolnshire, London, London County Suburbs, Middlesbrough, Norfolk, Northumberland, Oxfordshire, Somerset, Suffolk, Westmorland, Wiltshire, Worcestershire and Yorkshire.

A list of directories covered on the website can be viewed here: https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/coverage/directories/?type=diamond#includes

Q. Filters - Phonetic/Exact match etc

A. You can also select the Phonetic option to search for different spellings of a surname, e.g. Bayley, Bailey, Baily etc. If you select ‘Include Nicknames’ from the dropdown filter, this will include in the results any nicknames, so for example a search for Catherine with Nicknames included should return results for Kate and Katherine.

A phonetic search is much more refined than the variant searching available on other sites, as it concentrates on looking for a name based on the way it sounds rather than the way it is spelt. This is important as the records of our ancestors were often communicated verbally, for example a census enumerator asking a householder’s name or a vicar asking the names of a couple to be married. The further back you go the higher the likelihood of spelling variations, but the way a name sounded stayed consistent.

Please note however that you cannot use wildcards if you are using the Phonetic search option.

Q. Scottish/Irish data

A. The website currently covers records for England and Wales, which all form part of the UK. We also provide Census Indexes for Ireland 1901 & 1911. These indexes will link you through to the National Archives of Ireland website for further details.

In order to view Scottish BMD and Census records it is usually best to go directly to a Scottish organisation.

https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/

https://www.nas.gov.uk/

You can also try the GENUKI pages on Scotland which provide helpful links:

https://www.genuki.org.uk/

Useful sites for Ireland are:

https://geni.nidirect.gov.uk/

https://www.gov.ie/en/

https://www.nationalarchives.ie/

https://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/

https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/proni

The GENUKI pages on Ireland also provide helpful links:

https://www.genuki.org.uk/


Searching Back to top

Q. Why can’t I find a record I know exists?

A. If you're having difficulty finding people in databases that you expect to be there, it can be due to a number of things, and there are various search strategies you could try to find entries:

Ancestors' names aren't always recorded as we might expect. As well as using wildcards and filtering using the phonetic sound to look for variant spellings, you can leave the name boxes blank, entering just a keyword or two, a year of birth or selecting a county, which can be particularly useful for identifying name variations.

Early census forms were completed by enumerators rather than householders so it is possible that your ancestors’ details may have been misheard or recorded incorrectly.

Q. Why can’t I get a Birth, Marriage or Death certificate (1837-2005) from your website?

A. We only provide an index to the BMD records. Record certificates aren't available to view online on any site as they're only available from the General Register Office. You can apply for them online at: www.gro.gov.uk using the index references and general record details available on our BMD indexes.

Q. How do I inform you of a transcription error?

A. If you notice a transcription error, you can bring our attention to it using our error reporting system - this is the icon with a question mark that can be seen on the right of entries within a full record. For BMD Indexes this will open a window that will enable you to log your amendment suggestion, which is then offered as an alternative. This will not alter the original entry.

For Census records you can either log an amendment suggestion or to have the database amended, or to inform us of a broader error, please contact us using the 'click here' link at the top of the error reporting window. An error report will then be sent to us containing the unique reference number for the particular entry that you wish to query, and you can also add any further comments that may be relevant to the amendment. We can then update our databases.


Technical Issues Back to top

Q. What are cookies and how do I enable them correctly?

A. Cookies are small text files left by a website when you visit so it can identify you next time. Many large websites use a cookie to recognise you when you next visit and remember your preferences etc. The cookie we create contains no information personal to you.

Allowing a website to create a cookie does not give that site or any other site access to the rest of your computer and only the site that created the cookie can read it. We use cookies to remember the computer used last time you logged in to the service. This is the only way we can prevent performance being degraded by people trying to access the service without paying for subscriptions. The WikiHow website has some very easy to follow instructions on enabling cookies here.

Q. How can I get your site to work with my firewall running?

A. You will need to allow access to our site. Each firewall works differently and has so many settings that we cannot give complete instructions for them here. You will need to refer to your firewall manual.

However as a basic guide, if you are prompted by your firewall asking whether you will allow access to the site, say Yes. Or, if your firewall settings allow you to type in website addresses manually, ensure that this site’s URL is allowed.

Q. I have a browser which seems to have problems when using this site (e.g. BT, Yahoo, AOL). How do I fix this?

A. To stop this from happening, try using the most recent version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox instead of your current browser - this should stop it from crashing and enable you to use the website. For detailed installation please click here.

Q. Diagnosing general technical issues

A. Try pressing Ctrl + F5 on the web page to refresh and then repeat the action. If this works the issue was hopefully a temporary one and it has already been resolved.

If your browser has a “Private Browsing” mode enable this and repeat the action in this new window.

If this works then it is likely an add-on you have installed on your browser, please consider returning to non private mode and then disabling them one at a time while retesting the issue.

Try a different browser (Chrome ideally, or Firefox if you are already using Chrome). If you are using a mobile device and have access to a full PC, please try it on this.