Quality of Census Images

It is possible to get digitized images from various sources - all of which seem to have been taken from the same National Archives microfilm masters.  Different versions have been processed, and are presented, in different ways and this page has been set up to allow you to compare them.

In each case the example comes from the first data page of the 1851 census for Kings Langley.

Screen Save of online Ancestry image "50% enlargement" See 200% enlargement below

Screen Save of image from British Data Archive CD "100% enlargement" See 200% enlargement below

While the above may be adequate with easy to read pages it is essential to be able to enlarge images to try and pick up fine detail.

Screen Save of online Ancestry Image "200% enlargement" A close look shows that it is a grey scale image which makes it easier to interpret fainter lines

Screen Save of image from British Data Archive CD "400% enlargement" These images appear to be black/white (rather than grey scale) which is adequate in most cases but may be somewhat less satisfactory with the occasional difficult page,

Page updated August 2008