Use the census

Censuses began in England and Wales in 1801, but these ten-yearly headcounts don’t come into their own as a source for family history until 1841, when the first census to solicit biographical details about the populace took place.

Except in 1941, when war made it impossible, this process has been repeated every ten years since. To protect people’s privacy, census records are usually closed for 100 years, but the most recent one currently available to view is that for 1911.

This offers family historians an incredible 70-year window in which to plot the ever-evolving lives of their predecessors.
 

What census documents reveal

Though undeniably useful, the 1841 records aren’t hugely informative, recording only the full name, age, gender and occupation of each individual, plus whether or not they were born in the country.

From 1851 you get a more complete picture; the full name, precise age, marital status, gender, occupation, parish and county of birth of every person in the household and – crucially – their relationship to the head of household.

The new 1911 census provides additional information including for women, the number of complete years their current marriage had lasted, the number of children born within this marriage and the number who had died. People were asked the industry they worked in, the number of rooms occupied in the house and the age at which any infirmity began.

When you find a potential family in any year, cross-reference the information you find on the census with what you have gleaned from your research into the GRO indexes.

Do the names, ages and dates match up? If not, you need to discover why not before you can progress any further.
 

Consulting the census online

There are myriad websites offering census searching, and the terms you can use for your search varies at each.

The most complete collection is at www.ancestry.co.uk, which offers subscribers indexes and images for all the useful UK census years, searchable by name. Other commercial sites offering comprehensive coverage include www.findmypast.com (the only site to currently offer access to the 1911 census via its www.1911census.co.uk), www.genesreunited.com and www.thegenealogist.co.uk.

You can also search transcriptions of the 1881 census for free on the website of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints www.familysearch.org. Scottish census records, with links to digitised images, are at www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk.
 

Consulting the census in person

Although armchair research is certainly appealing, it’s not your only option. You can also access the records at various archives and repositories up and down the country.

Those for England and Wales are available on microfiche and film at the National Archives, Kew (1841-1891); Scottish returns are held at the General Register Office for Scotland in Edinburgh; and surviving Irish censuses (1901 and 1911 are largely complete) are at the National Archives of Ireland in Dublin, with copies at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, Belfast.

You’ll also find census material at family history centres run by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, plus regionally relevant copies at local county record offices.
 

In the 1841 census, everyone over 15 years of age had their age rounded down to the nearest five years. So, a person aged 64 would appear as 60; someone of 39 as 35. This makes it much more difficult to use this information to calculate a person’s year of birth with any degree of accuracy.