Comment picked up from the Cheshire List... "I don't think that there is any chance of the 1911 census being released early. See: http://www.british-genealogy.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-4656.html It may be that it is in such poor condition it will never be released at all!" The gist of it appears to be that there are 2 issues with the 1911 census. (1) It consists of original schedules, not enumerators' books, which means that the paper volume is multiplied hugely. This is all there is - it has never been filmed. (2) The conditions it was kept in previously mean that lots of the pages are in poor condition - the original poster says that people who work in the archives at Kew know where the 1911 census is, because, to be frank, it stinks! (I'm willing to be contradicted, but it all seemed very plausible). Rather than build up hopes for 2 January 2012 that simply will not be fulfilled, could SoG lobby for a feasibility study that will identify what, if anything, can be done with it - while still preserving the confidentiality of the data until that date? Adrian Bruce adrian_bruce@bigfoot.com