Tutbury Census 1960
Join our team of compilers – adopt a street
Anyone who does family history will know that much of the 20th century is, surprisingly, not well provided with readily accessible research data compared to earlier periods. There are no published Censuses after 1921 and that will remain so for another 30 years; the National Insurance “1939 Register” only partially fills those decades for people who were adults pre-WW2; and after the War, christenings, church weddings and burials were becoming less the norm and so parish records become less comprehensive.
To help bridge this gap, we are attempting to produce our own “Census” of Tutbury in 1960 for use as a Museum research resource. It will need a team of “Compilers”.
We can’t travel back in time and go knocking on 1960 doors, but there are enough data sources available to allow us to build up a detailed picture of all, or almost all, of the individual Tutbury residents of that time.
It will be more of a detective job rather than a traditional “transcription” exercise, and lends itself to a number of us each “adopting a street” — ideally one where we grew up or live in today. 1960 was the high point of the great Council House expansion along Wakefield Avenue, Holts Lane, Park Lane, Redhill Lane and Green Lane, which transformed the face of the village and the lives of many of its residents.
Full information for many families will be fairly readily available, particularly long-standing village residents; for others, especially those recently arrived or soon departed, it will be more of a challenge, which is where the detective work will be most needed.
The compilation work can be done partly at home, supplemented by some time spent in the Museum. If you have any experience doing your own family history research, then the processes will be familiar to you. Equally, if you haven’t, the project would be a good introduction to the techniques of doing so.
If you would like to join our Project team, contact the Museum Chairman on 01455 823348 or email christipper2@gmail.com