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The Census

Access to the census records for the British Isles have created, and continue to create many challenges for researchers of family history.

Unlike many countries, the various countries within the British Isles operate what is known as the 100 year rule, that means you can't have access to the census returns for 100 years. The official reason for this is to protect the privacy of the majority of the people who may still be alive.

The sceptics are more likely to respond that HMG is paranoid about secrecy, and as such this is a convenient rule to adopt. You pay your money and you take  your choice as to which reason you believe in. Me ... I'm neutral!

So in reality this means that (Except for Ireland) until January 2002, we will not be able to get access to the 1901 census, so we  must settle for those years prior to 1901.

The modern census is taken every ten years, so that means the last one we have access to is 1891. Although there were early census's taken (the most famous being the survey of 1086 popularly known as The Domesday Book) for the vast majority of us, these are of academic interest only.

Of course, if you are part of the British nobility, you will be interested in trying to go back that far, but for the rest of us mere descendents of common folk, we tend to get excited if we can get back to the 17th century!

Anyhow, the bottom line for family historians is that what we are actually searching for is some document that actually lists names, and unfortunately, despite the adoption of the oak tree as the family historian emblem, such documents don't grow on trees you know!

In fact, until very recently public access to historical documentation was very difficult to achieve, and it has only been in the last twenty years of the 20th century that relatively easy access has been possible.

Now, of course when I say easy access, keep in mind we are talking about the British Isles here!

Provided that you could prove who you were, and that a trip to a local record office was possible, or for the lucky few, access to the Public Register Office in either, London, Edinburgh, Dublin or Belfast, you could join a queue to look at some microfilm.

Even today, amongst the important facts that visitors to the British Isles discover are the following.

Only one census, the 1881 census, has been fully indexed and made available to the public. Sad isn't it?

So for anything else you are reliant upon the good services of the most glorious band of family historians who painstakingly tabulate and cross tabulate all the entries in what are known as Census Enumerators Books to produce indexes of the various census material that has been made available.

is the key to the sharing of information. In its simplest form it involves the writing down of records or information on paper. Now as we all use the WWW more and more, we find an outstanding medium for communication, so when you find something new which you think should be shared with the world ... send me an e-mail.

Fortunately a good part of the 19th century has now been indexed and is available on microfiche. I therefore direct you to a booklet published by the Federation of Family History Societies called 'Current Publications on Microfiche, by Member Societies', ISBN 1-86006-042-0 published 1997 as a 4th edition.

So what about  the census taken before the 19th century, well at best partial listings survive, and if you really want to know what they are I recommend that you purchase the following book.

'Pre 1841 Censuses & Population Listings in the British Isles' by Colin Chapman ISBN 1-873686-08-0 4TH EDITION, Published by Lochin Publishing. This book provides a run down on what is available, how the different censuses were taken and where you can see them. It also contains a superb list of which censuses prior to 1841 actually contain names of individuals.

So what about the 19th century before 1841?

These of course were 1801 to 1831 inclusive, though in fairness many of the lists of names have not survived. Those that did are listed in Colin Chapman's book.

So why do we all start at 1841?

The 1841 census is the first census where all the Census Enumerator's Books (CEBs) survived. The quick elevator explanations of a CEB is that it is the book into which the census enumerators transcribed the information given on the householder's return..

Now a couple of things about CEBs, they are transcriptions, that is the enumerator filled in the data, so if the householder could not spell (the vast majority of people) then the enumerator wrote down what he heard. Hence the various spellings that proliferated.

The next point is that all the CEBs have been microfilmed and are available, usually for loan, via a Family History Society. They are also available for view in Public Record Offices.

The next good bit of news is that FHS's have created indexes of the censuses, but there has been no mass transcription of the CEBs. Those indexes are on microfiche (see above).

But, there is the bad news because most of the CEBs were written in pencil .. and you guessed it ... many of them have faded and it is very difficult to read them. In fact a large proportion cannot be read at all.

The next bit of bad news is when you read them.

Yes they give names, but they do not give family information, so if you have two cousins living in the same house you could have say

• John Smith age 40
• Mary Smith age 40
• William Smith age 20
• Thomas Smith age 19

and you cannot differentiate between the family members.

More on British censuses