Census Returns

Tracing Family History: NarrowBoat, Autumn 2006

Lorna York

The census has been taken every ten years since 1801, but not in 1941 because of World War Two. The censuses between 1801 and 1831 were purely numerical population counts, and give very little detail to help the family historian. There are exceptions to this, however, and these may be found by looking at J.S.W. Gibson’s series of marriage, census and other indexes for family historians (generally only available through libraries) and C.R. Chapman’s Pre 1841 Censuses & Population Listings. To best understand the census results, it helps to know the logistics of taking a census.How was the country divided? Census returns are arranged by place and they follow the system of the Civil Registration of Births, Marriages & Deaths. When Civil Registration was established by Act of Parliament in 1836 and implemented on 1st July 1837, the Poor Law unions were used as a basis for the boundaries of the registration districts. There were eleven districts covering England and Wal…