Sunday, April 2, 1911 was not only a highly significant date in Hampshire's history but also an important milestone in the nation as a whole.

On that date the details of 36 million people were recorded by the 1911 national census and now, nearly 100 years later, this information has been made public.

From today people who are researching their family history or just wanting a snapshot of life before the First World War will be able to access these archives now available on the Internet.

According to the official records there were 915,404 people living in Hampshire back in 1911, a figure dwarfed by the most recent total available of 1,705,700.

The 1911 census covered England, Wales, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands, as well as recording those aboard Royal Navy and merchant vessels at sea and in foreign ports. For the first time in a British census, full details of British Army personnel and their families in military establishments overseas were also included, making this the most detailed census since UK records began.

The original census schedules, complete with our ancestors’ own handwriting, have been preserved providing a fascinating insight into British society nearly a century ago.

Now 27 million people’s census entries – 80 per cent of the English records – will be available, including details of thousands of Hampshire people. A further nine million records of people from the remaining counties of England, Wales, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands, as well as the naval and overseas military records, will be made available over the coming months.

Public demand for the census, which will be a key resource for family historians, has resulted in the records being released earlier than the scheduled 2012 date. To make this early online release to the public possible, the 1911 census team worked around the clock for two years, scanning on average one census page per second. In line with data protection legislation, certain sensitive information relating to infirmity and to children of women prisoners has been held back until 2012. The 1911 census is huge, occupying more than 2km of shelf space. An incredible eight million paper census returns have been transcribed to create in excess of 16 million digital images, one of the biggest digitisation projects ever undertaken by The National Archives in association with a commercial partner.

Completed by all householders in England and Wales on Sunday, 2 April 1911, the census records show the name, age, place of birth, marital status and occupation of every resident in every home, as well as their relationship to the head of the household.

People will also have unique access to their ancestors' handwriting as the original householders' schedules were preserved and used as working documents rather than copying the details in to summary books as was the case in previous census years.

The launch of the records also creates a starting point for people to trace their own family tree by looking up their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents who were alive in the year 1911.

Census details can be obtained by logging on to: 1911census.co.uk