1871 Census

Sunday 2nd April 1871

The 1861 form was extended only slightly by asking if the enumerated person was an "imbecile or idiot" or "lunatic". The data collected was as follows;

Address information included more detail than previously.
Houses: A check box indicating if the building was "Inhabited" or "Uninhabited or Building".
Name of each resident on census night.
The relationship of each person to the head of the family, the head usually being the first person listed.
Each person's "Condition" or marital status. Married (M), Unmarried (U), Widowed (W), Divorced (D).
Each person's age at the time of their previous birthday was recorded, with no rounding down. There were, however, many reasons to lie!
Sex was indicated by means of the age being entered into a Male/Female column.
Rank, profession or occupation. The most common occupation at this time was that of 'Ag. Lab' or Agricultural Labourer. Always be aware that some folk would 'promote' themselves into a more respectable post than they actually held.
Where born; parish and county. If born overseas only the country was recorded. Once again, fear of the Poor Law and settlement rules resulted in many lies being told to enumerators.
Whether the person being enumerated was "blind", "deaf or dumb", "imbecile or idiot" or "lunatic".

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