What is a Census?
A census is a count of the population together with their demographic data e.g. age, marital status, occupation and relationship to the main householder. Its aim is to help the government plan the resources it will need in the future for the population.British Census Returns
In Britain a census has been taken every ten years since 1801, except during World War II. The latest publicly available census is for 1901 which you can see online.From 1801 to 1831, the census data was recorded by local clergy from parish registers and managers of workhouses for the poor. These records have mostly been lost.
In 1841 a census, as people today would understand it, started and has got progressively better over the years. The 1841 census and all records up to 1901 are available online from commercial organisations such as Ancestry.co.uk
Census Problems
There are a few problems with the earlier census returns:- The enumerators taking the census often only partially or wrongly completed the returns.
- Many people were missed from the earlier returns.
- The answers people gave seem suspect in many cases.
- First names were the names people were known by at the time which may well not be the same as that on their birth certificate or that used on later returns.
For example, some people had no real idea how old they were.
Because of the difficulty in reading the writing of the earlier returns, the returns have been "transcribed", that is converted into typed data. If you are using a transcript, which all online searches will be based on, be aware that the transcriptions are not always accurate.
Census returns are, however, a key way of tracing families. You can look at the LDS transcriptions of the 1881 census free online, (see links page).
A census will usually have: the name and age of each person living in a household, their relationship to the head of the household, their occupation and where they were born. With this information it is often possible to find "lost" ancestors by searching on names and locations.
As mentioned in the getting started section, by tracing census information it is possible to find family links and track these back through the generations.
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