Beckham's great-great grandpa was a scavenger

David Beckham's great-great grandfather was a 'scavenger'

David Beckham

David Beckham's great-great grandfather was a 'scavenger'

David Beckham's great-great grandfather was a "scavenger," or rubbish collector, according to British census data which went online yesterday, giving an eye-opening view of life a century ago.

Other titbits revealed by the 1911 census which was besieged by people seeking to trace their family tree include that one of singer Amy Winehouse's immigrant ancestors was a fruit seller.

Prime minister Herbert Asquith and writers Virginia Woolf and Agatha Christie are also among those whose personal details are collected, and available online for the first time. The Beckham family's census form, completed in neat handwriting, lists the football icon's great-great grandfather John as a "scavenger" who lived in Walworth, southeast London.

Abraham Granish, Winehouse's great-great grandfather, was a Russian immigrant described as a "hawker," selling goods door-to-door, who lived in the Spitalfields area of the capital.

Amusing
Bloomsbury set author Woolf, whose groundbreaking novels include "A Room of My Own" and "To the Lighthouse," was 29 at the time and described herself as a "journalist." She used her maiden name Adeline Virginia Stephen.

Christie, whose crime thrillers have been translated around the world, was also recorded under her unmarried name, Agatha Miller. She was 21.

Within 10 hours of going live Tuesday, the census website had received 5.4 million page views, and had been used to carry out over 260,000 searches on Britain's then 27 million-strong population, said a spokeswoman.

But the site was coping with the surge of interest unlike when the 1901 census was put online seven years ago, and crashed when over a million users tried to log on at the same time.

Elaine Collins, the commercial director of the www.1911census.co.uk website, said it provides a unique glimpse into life in the early 20th century.

"As well as helping people trace their ancestors, these records shed more light on our ancestors' day-to-day lifestyles, providing a snapshot of a day in their lives," she said.

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