1881 census?

Question:

1881 census?

why is it that on all census sites only the 1881 census is free to view??

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Part of the answer is that you are in fact incorrect, there are many other sites where more than the 1881 census is available and more important, for free. The single best site is Census-online (see url in the sources box) and it provides worldwide access to census data. Now most of these are transcriptions and many of them are specific to a county or local area, so they do not always cover what you need but are well worth searching.

If you are looking for Canadian material as the reference to 1881 seems to suggest (since Canadian census dates 1881, 1891, 1901 etc. while the American are right on the decade marker 1890, 1900, 1910 etc.) then Automated Genealogy provides free access and indexing to the 1901 and 1911 census.

To round out the effort you should then be looking at the GenWeb site or sites that cover your area of interest because each of the state and local genweb sites often have cenus transcriptions and even some even have images. The GenWeb "movement" is a worldwide effort to help keep genealogy "free".