The Local Studies sections of West Dunbartonshire Libraries have microfilm copies of the available census returns for the former Dunbartonshire parish districts from Rosneath in the west to Cumbernauld in the east. The complete collection of Dunbartonshire returns is kept at Dumbarton Library, which houses the largest collection of genealogical research resources. In addition to the Dunbartonshire returns, there are microfilm copies of the census for the parish districts in West Stirlingshire, such as Drymen and Balfron.
Clydebank Library also has the census for the Old Kilpatrick district (which includes the Burgh of Clydebank), and some other material.
In addition to microfilm, both Dumbarton and Clydebank Libraries local studies sections have the entire United Kingdom census for 1881 (only) on CDRoms. These are fully indexed and very easy to use. Results can be immediately printed.
Full contact details for Dumbarton Library and Clydebank Library are at our ancestry research start page.
All the census returns for Scotland are kept at the offices of the Registrar General for Scotland in Edinburgh.
General Register Office for Scotland
You can write to this office with a request for an extract from the census of 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891 or 1901. However, you would need to have pretty accurate information as to where your ancestors were living at the time of the census in question for the staff to follow up your request. Check with them first. You will also have to pay a search and reproduction fee for each item.
If you can, it is much better to go there as part of your genealogical researches and spend a day there for a single fee. You can view microform reproductions of the census, and there is on-line access to existing indexes. At the same time of course, you have access to birth, marriage and death certificates that you will normally want to consult in conjunction with the census. You can copy down the details you find rather than having to buy transcripts - though you can do that too if expense is not a problem.
The main local authority libraries throughout Scotland (including West Dunbartonshire - see the top of this page) have purchased microfilm of the available census returns for their area. Since access to this kind of material in public libraries is free, then if you are mainly interested in one place or area and do not need to consult certificates at the same time, it makes sense to go to a library rather than to the Registrar General's Office in Edinburgh. If there are no name indexes and no street indexes, however, be prepared to spend some considerable time searching. For Scottish library contact details go to the A-Z of organisations section of the Scottish Libraries and Information Resources (SLIR) website.
Perhaps the most popular method nowadays, however, for some of the census material, is to go to the Scotland's People web-site where you can also get on-line access to indexes and images of a great deal of the genealogical sources at New Register House.
http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/
The site has a full instructions about how to use it. Basically it involves getting a user name and password, and buying credits on-line using a credit card. The credits are deducted as you access levels of information. Getting documents on-line involves downloading images of them. These can be saved to your hard-disc and printed out. Your credits are time-limited, but if they are not all used within the time limit, the remaining ones will be added to any new credit batch purchase you make.
Note that on-line at this site you will only have access, for the moment, to the Scottish census returns for 1881, 1891 and 1901.
The census records for all of these years are now available:
- 1841
- 1851
- 1861
- 1871
- 1881
- 1891
- 1901
Other on-line sources for census information include the Latter Day Saints (LDS) site where the 1881 census (England and Wales only at present) as well as the census for Canada (1881) and The United States (1880) can be searched by surname. Some Irish family history resource sites reproduce parts of the 1901 census for Ireland. A particularly good example is that covering County Donegal: Donegal Genealogy Resources.
