Britain's National Archives has released the 1911 census online, giving historians, genealogists and people interested in their family trees easy access to records containing the details of 27 million people.
The release of the data means that amateur historians could discover new information - maybe their grandparents lived next door to Virginia Woolf, listed with her brother on Fitzroy Square in central London - or help nail down the missing piece of a family puzzle.
The census also shows football star David Beckham's great-great-great grandfather John Beckham was employed as a scavenger, or junkman, and that one of singer Amy Winehouse's ancestors was a fruit seller.
The website has information on more than 80 percent of the people living in England on April 2, 1911, and also provides an official look at Britain before the outbreak of World War I.
The census gives an individual's age, occupation and place of birth. It also lists how many, if any servants, they had.
Information on another 9 million people in England and Wales, as well as members of the British military serving overseas, will be released over the coming months.
The site is a partnership between the National Archives and findmypast.com, a family history website. When the full set of data is online, details of 36 million people who were born on or before that day in 1911 will be available.
And for the first time, the site includes scanned copies of the original forms filled out by householders.
While searching is free, viewing the records is not: Credits must be purchased to look at the information, and it costs 30 credits to view an original household page. Sixty credits cost £6.95 pounds ($NZ18.24).
"These records shed more light on our ancestors' day-to-day lifestyles, providing a snapshot of a day in their lives, with details of their occupations, housing arrangements and social status," said Elaine Collins, the company's commercial director.
A census can provide researchers the missing name of a great-grandparent or previously unknown relatives who can be researched further in other records.
In Britain, a census is taken once every decade. British law says that data in the census is kept private for 100 years, but the 1911 information was released early because the Census Act only came into effect in 1920.
"Census records are fantastic because they tell you so much, and you can cross-reference them," said Sue Hills, who worked as a producer on the British Broadcasting Corp. television show, Who Do You Think You Are?, which traced the ancestry of celebrities, including Jerry Springer.
Hills, who also runs a travel company that traces the genealogy of her guests, said the fact that data on marriage and children are included in the records is very helpful. That information can help amateur historians find even more genealogical information, such as marriage and birth certificates.
She said that people tracing their ancestry back to Britain are particularly lucky because there is a wealth of British material on the internet. Census data going as far back as 1841 is available online.
She said it can be more difficult to trace ancestors in places like the US and Canada. "They're so spoiled when they have ancestors in England, Scotland, or Wales because there's so much available," Hills said. "There's so much on the web."
