Ancestry Magazine

If you have British ancestry, the decennial censuses will provide the critical information you are seeking—now from the comfort of home.

Researchers of English and Welsh ancestry in the nineteenth and even the late-eighteenth centuries have benefited greatly from the birth of the dynamic duo: civil registration and census enumeration. Civil registration, or the national recording of births, marriages, and deaths began in 1837. The first nationwide census of genealogical value commenced four years later in 1841. Ideally, the two should be worked in cycles, with one providing clues of where to go next in the other.

The first census was actually taken in 1801, and the subsequent censuses were taken every ten years thereafter. However, the censuses before 1841 were statistical in nature, not even preserving the name of the head of household. A few local returns survive that give more details on families for some 750 parishes. For details, see the booklet by Gibson and Medlycott, Local Census Listings, 1522—1930 (GPC, 1997).

The English had been dithering over having a census since the 1750s. The American census of 1790 may have provoked them to finally make the census a reality. It would appear that nonconformists (those of a religion other than the Church of England) in Parliament spearheaded the drive for both civil registration and the census in order to ensure that the members of their various churches were legally recorded.

Compared to its American counterpart, the 1841 census is a gem. It provides the names of everyone normally in that household on the night of the census, along with ages, occupations, and whether or not they were born in the county of residence. Unfortunately, it has three major weaknesses. There is no statement of relationship, the ages for those over fifteen are supposed to have been rounded down to the nearest multiple of five (a man age twenty-four would be listed as twenty), and a “no” answer in the birth column means there are some fifty-one other possible counties of birth. The first weakness is partially compensated for by a slash (/) or double slash (//) in front of the name of the last member in the household. Hence, relationships can then be roughly determined from the sex, age, and position listed in the family.

The 1851 census is a landmark achievement in census taking. Its timing is crucial, coming at mid-century in the spring rather than the summer, as in the case of the 1841 census. Thereafter, the censuses from 1861 to 1891 were taken in the first week of April. Moreover, the 1851 census corrects the deficiencies of the 1841 census and is the pattern for the later ones.

The 1851 census adds two columns for relationships and marital status. More importantly, it gives exact ages and birthplaces, including the county and parish of birth, with the county usually listed first. Its greatest weakness is the relationship column, as it provides only the relationship of each family member to the head of household and not to each other. Thus, a researcher may miss the fact that the children listed were actually the wife’s stepchildren. There are also the problems common to all censuses: copying errors and falsification of the information, either intentionally or unintentionally.

Census Availability
In addition to the records in England, microform copies of the 1841 thru 1891 censuses are available at the Family History Library (FHL) and through its numerous branch Family History Centers. There are printed surname indexes at t he FHL for much of the 1851 census that were compiled by local family history societies in the various counties. The FHL has produced a CD that indexes a complete transcription of the 1851 census for three counties: Devon, Norfolk, and Warwick. On a larger level, the FHL, with the assistance of the Federation of Family History Societies, has released a series of CDs for the entire 1881 census. There are also street indexes for the 1841 thru 1891 censuses for most cities with a population of 40,000 and upward. (Researchers might obtain a street address from a certificate in civil registration recorded near the year of the census.)

The suggested research methodology consists of obtaining birth, marriage, and death certificates wherever possible on one’s direct lines, and finding their respective families in each pertinent census. Despite the aids outlined in the previous paragraph, this may not be all that easy nor always produce the desired results. (Using the street indexes, I once traced a family in three different censuses of the second largest city in England: Birmingham. The family was found in all three censuses, but the husband and wife gave a different birthplace each time.)

The ideal solution for census research is to use modern technology to digitize or produce an electronic version of the censuses. The Public Record Office in England is in the process of testing this with the 1901 census. Of even greater value is Ancestry.com’s project to digitize the 1841 thru 1891 censuses and place them online. The ongoing release of the 1891 census images and indexes on the Ancestry.co.uk site is just the step we want to see. The project will be the most comprehensive collection of English census records on the Web.

David H. Pratt, AG, Ph.D., is a former BYU professor of family history and English history. He currently volunteers for the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.