January 2, 2002 Posted: 10:31 AM EST (1531 GMT) LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Modern technology has given Britons a glimpse of life at the turn of the last century with the online publication of the national census for 1901. Doomed Antarctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott, silent movie actor Charlie Chaplin, nurse Florence Nightingale and "The Lord of the Rings" author J.R.R. Tolkien are among notable citizens whose details are recorded on the census. A spokeswoman for the Public Records Office -- which on Wednesday made the entire 1901 census for England and Wales available online at www.census.pro.gov.uk -- said the site had taken two years to complete and would be an invaluable resource for genealogists and historians. "The database contains details of over 32 million individuals," she told BBC radio. "It is a snapshot of the family at the time -- ages, place of birth, occupations and also...who else was in the household at the time." The census was conducted a few weeks after the death of Queen Victoria as Britain was beginning a new era under the rule of King Edward VII. As well as the famous names, it also lists 90,000 "lunatics, imbeciles and feeble-minded people." Project manager Alison Webster said census returns were the Public Record Office's most popular documents. By mid-morning the site was temporarily unavailable due to heavy demand. The Public Records Office has already begun work on building a similar site for the 1891 census which is expected to be available to the public next year, she said.