1841 Census

Sunday 6th June 1841

This was the first census to include personal data and the first to be of any use to family historians. The following information was recorded for each dwelling;

Address. Actual house numbers are rare and in smaller hamlets only the name of the village was given.
If the building was inhabited or uninhabited.
Name of all persons in residing in the dwelling on census night.
Age. For those over 15, this should have been rounded down to the nearest 5. In some instance the actual age was recorded in error.
Sex: indicated by means of the age being entered into a Male/Female column.
Profession, trade, employment or independent means.
Y or N to indicate if they were being recorded in the county of their birth.
Where they born in Scotland (S), Ireland (I) or Foreign Parts (F).

There was a great deal of suspicion about the census, particularly the profession and birthplace questions. Many believed it to be a way of gathering data for The Poor Law and that they would end up being sent back to their place of birth, or subjected to extra charges by the parish. There was a lot of 'census dodging' as a consequence.

Free census record forms are available at www.eyfhs.org.uk/census