Searching census by Occupation

I have noted that others have been able to search various UK census by
the Occupation field. That is really useful if you have a common name
but no dob - as in a parent's name on a marriage certificate.

As far as I can tell, it's not possible to do this search using the
online Ancestry.

So do I assume that you can only do this if you have the census on
CDs?

handp...

On Ancestry you can search by occupation on the 1881 census, but none
of the years.

caroline.bradford...

A census index (or any index for that matter) can only be searched by
criteria present in that index, not by criteria in the source of the index.
If a census is fully transcribed then an index *may* be based (and therefore
searched) on any of the available fields. Ancestry has chosen to save time
by not transcribing the occupation field on the original images. The
exception is the 1881 census, because Ancestry use the full transcription
made by the LDS many years ago, so the occupation field is searchable. The
census CDs which are available from various sources are not themselves
indexed at all - they are simply a facsimile of the original enumerators'
books (though some are sold with street indexes and some suppliers have a
separate name index available at extra cost or via an online subscription).

David J...

Ahh - I hadn't realised that the 1881 was searchable on Ancestry.

Thanks to all who replied. David

Best wishes