Census records

Introduction
The first census was taken in 1801 and has been repeated every 10 years, except during the Second World War. The original documents, held by The National Archives, are closed for 100 years to guarantee confidentiality. The census is taken to provide important statistical information on the population. The emphasis has varied through time and the details supplied in the returns are not absolutely standard.

1801-1831
From 1801 to 1831 the census returns were purely numerical in content and contained no personal information. The originals were not preserved after the "Census Reports" were published.

1841
From 1841 the census lists the name, age, sex and occupation of every person in the household. It does however, have a number of limitations for Family Historians in that it does not always give an exact address, nor indicate in which parish a person was born or the relationship with other members of the household. The greatest hindrance is that it does not give the exact age for individuals over the age of 15 with ages being rounded-down to the nearest 0 or 5 (eg somebody aged 44 would be recorded as 40 and somebody aged 48 recorded as 45.

Many abbreviations were used for occupations (eg F.S. or M.S. for female or male servant; Ap for apprentice; CL for clerk).

1851-1901
From 1851 the census lists the full name, exact age, sex, marital status, family relationships, occupation, trade or profession and both the parish and country of birth. Condition or marital status is variously abbreviated (eg. U, Un or S for unmarried).