We're going to take a brief look at how the census began, and the dates and information you need to be aware of before you begin to search this extremely useful source. Firstly, the census actually began in 1801. But at this time, they gave no names. So the census records before 1841 are of no use to the family historian. The census was taken because the government wanted to know how many people there were in each area, that sex age groups, and later on, there are movements from one place to another. It is a good idea to be aware of the exact date that each census was taken.

But this can help you to identify the approximate months a child was born or the dates that an ancestor was still alive, for example, if you're searching for their date of death, and that's right, come on. I'll be showing you the exact date of each census along with some brief information. As you can see, all of the census records were taken in the spring of each year. But these exact dates I am showing you on the slide can be extremely useful for noting the kind of details I've just been talking about. The 1841 census is the most limited, it does not give relationships within the people in each household, nor does it give an exact place of birth nor an exact age. From 1851.

These details were in place and there were only a few minor adjustments between 1851 and 1901. I'll be going over these later, in 1911. The returns look different with one household for each page. The number of years for the marriage of each couple given, along with how many children had survived and how many had died. Currently, these records are open to the public up to 1911. But for confidentiality reasons, they are close for the last 100 years.

So we will only be able to view the 1921 census in a couple of years time and 2021. Unfortunately, in the future, we will not be able to view either the 1931 nor the 1941 census records. This is because tragically our fire destroyed the 1931 census, and there was no census taken in 1941. Because of World War Two. This creates a horrible gap for future family historians. However, it is filled up to a point by the 1939 register, which was taken at the start of World War Two and can mostly be viewed Today, we'll be having a look at this in a short while.

I highly recommend that you memorize these points about the senses, as it can help you to understand some of the difficulties of searching the senses and how to overcome them. Firstly, you must remember that each census was recorded by an enumerator for the district going from house to house and taking down the information from the head of household. So obviously, the initial record was handwritten, and often it was by word of mouth as the head of household was illiterate, which is very often the case in the early part of the century. That means the errors were made. Secondly, the census records that we see are not those initial records made by the enumerators. The information from those records were copied again by hand, with further opportunities for misspellings and errors.

Those original enumerator records were then destroyed. Sadly, since the indexes have been made more recently, of course, the transcribers are reading handwritten copies of handwritten copies. So the possibilities for errors in the records themselves and in the indexes are extremely high. Just when he thought it was going to be easy, but don't worry, when I carry out my searches for you to follow, I'll show you some of the tricks you can carry out to find names that have perhaps been spelled wrongly. In theory, you should find all your ancestors who were alive at the time the census records, but this is not always the case. And this can be due to badly spelled names, but it could also be due to homelessness or someone changing that name for maybe criminal or other reasons.

Another thing you should No is that in 1911 many suffragettes wanted to be excluded as a protest against the government. So they slept rough or refused their names to be included. The good news is that you have come to genealogy at the right time. When I started out, there were no or very few indexes at all. And there was no internet. So you had to spend hours trawling through the census records for the area your thought your answers to lifting and if they moved around a lot, that make things very difficult.

Nowadays, if your answers to Stickney from area to area it is much easier to trace them. Another thing you should remember with the fences and indeed with many other historical documents is that these are human beings giving information to another human being. Now if you know thing about human nature, you will know that people have all kinds of reasons for being a little creative with the truth. And in the Victorian age in particular, the importance of social mores and ideas about respectability meant that people often adjusted information about themselves. For example, a large age gap between a man and his wife, particularly if it was the wife, who was older, was quite often frowned upon. And therefore, you will often find couples giving a slightly different age to what is actually the truth, which is why it is always wise to give a wide age range when doing your searches.

Another reason for giving inaccurate information might be to cover up an illegitimate child or to cover up at less than respectable past. Or sometimes they were guessing at the information. An older person may not always remember where he was born. Especially if his parents move soon after his birth. I'll be looking at some of these problems when I show you my own searches. And don't worry, most of the time, it's a lot easier then I'm probably making this sound.

But you do need to know all of these potential problems so that you are well and truly armed when it comes to your searches.