The UK 1901 Census

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Details the census can provide

Census Enumerators' Books

Full name, exact age, relationship to head of household, sex, occupation, parish and county of birth, medical disabilities and employment status.

census page
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Each householder was required to complete a census schedule giving the address of the household, and the names, ages, sex, occupations and places of birth of each individual residing in his or her accommodation. In 1851, householders were asked to give more precise details of the places of birth of each resident, to state their relationship to him or her, marital status and the nature of any disabilities from which they may have suffered. In 1891, householders were asked how many rooms (if less then five) their family occupied and additional occupational data was collected.

The enumerator then collected the census schedules and these were copied into census enumerators' books. The way these are grouped may mean that a road is split over several folios with other streets in between. In this case the street indexes should list a series of folio references.

Although the original census schedules were destroyed many years ago, the books were kept and eventually moved to the PRO archive. The books were then filmed in 1970 to prevent the increasing usage from destroying these fragile records. You may find the odd torn or mutilated page but in general the records have survived in remarkable condition considering the heavy usage they have had.

The Census is arranged by Registration District and Sub-Districts with Street Indexes for areas of high population.

Definitions

Piece number (Normally contains between 100-400 pages).

A PRO reference number referring to a number of Enumeration Districts represented by a file R13-XXXX; e.g. RG13/0100 would be in a file R13-0100.

Enumeration District (Contains about 50 pages). This refers to a group of streets and has a special sheet listing which streets are in the following pages.

Folio (Reference to two pages). The original book pages were stamped with a folio number on every other page in the top right-hand corner.

Census News & Information

Anatomy of the Census Page
Not every piece of information is obvious to the casual observer, so to make sure that you extract every useful piece of information from the census page.

 

Non-parochial, foreign and maritime Births, Marriages and Deaths digit
The National Archives has signed a license with Genealogy Supplies Limited to scan the existing microform and place online 13 series records. The aim is to have some records online towards the end of this year.

 

TNA Launch New Site - Hidden BMDs 1567 to 1858
In the years before compulsory registration, you need to turn to parish records. This new website that has been launched by The National Archive allows you to search records from 1567 to 1858.

 

Case Study - Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett
Throughout their 20 month courtship and before getting engaged, Robert and Elizabeth exchanged around 600 letters. This is how their marriage record was found.