Go to the LAC website and find the link posted to access the 1931 census on Thursday is no more, and there’s a News post.
“After a tremendous take off for the launch of the 1931 Census on June 1, traffic increased rapidly. Our system started showing signs of slowing down, followed by difficulties with loading images. Unfortunately, this affected our users’ online experience, and we apologize for the inconvenience. We are as disappointed as our users, given the tireless work that went into preparing for the 1931 Census release and the anticipation around that release.
We are actively working on finding technical solutions and testing is ongoing.
While we do not have a timeline to offer at the moment, giving our users a great online experience with the 1931 Census data is our top priority.
Thank you for your patience.”
The apology and your disappointment is noted. It’s easy to thank us for our patience, but with LAC’s continuing underperformance, patience becomes exhaused.
Would it be too much to expect that LAC would have enough consideration for its clients to direct them to the free availability of the census images at Ancestry?
Our community should be asking Leslie Weir, recently reappointed Librarian and Archivist of Canada, where the buck should stop, to investigate and reveal why with all the time LAC had to prepared the launch, it was such a failure.
Show leadership!
Part of LAC’s mandate is “to be a source of enduring knowledge accessible to all, contributing to the cultural, social and economic advancement of Canada as a free and democratic society.” How does LAC management know what knowkedge its single largest client group, genealogists, wants made available?
After your previous comments John, I tried accessing the 1931 census too. I knew exactly where my fmaily was then, but as you said, I just received the “can’t load” signal. Cheers anyways, BT
I then tried Anestry and even Family Search, and still couldn’t find my grandfather in the 1931 census. Sheeesh, BT
I guess we shouldn’t be surprised. Disappointed sure but their track record for client service isn good and just continues to decline year after.
Oh for goodness sakes! And the Ancestry site is so much faster than LAC was when it worked. Sheesh.
Well, at least Ancestry has the images and they’re way easier (and faster) to browse there. I’ve found two of my husband’s great-grandparents and their families so far…
After trying to find my family on LAC and receiving errors messages, I tried Ancestry: NOTHING. Finally yesterday, I was able to find my family on LAC!
I can’t believe such incompetence, lack of planning, failure to allocate adequate budget etc. What is the mission of LAC, after all? It’s not as if they didn’t have time to prepare!
I haven’t tried to look at the census at LAC knowing that I would be disappointed. I’ll try Ancestry when I’m ready.
By the way John, I’ve stopped receiving your newsletter even though I’ve signed up twice. I’ll sign up again to see if that works.