Census Records
CENSUS returns pre-dating 1841 were simply headcounts, the original returns for these years have not survived. However, from 1841 census returns for England and Wales were compiled using the same system for registration of births, marriages and deaths. The returns also incorporate details of registration districts and sub-districts providing a direct link to the two most important 19th century sources of information for family historians.
Each sub-district was divided into enumeration districts and an enumerator was appointed to collect returns for each district. All over Britain the week before census night, enumerators delivered the census forms to homes in their designated area. It was the householders' duty to complete the census form correctly and the enumerator's responsibilty to collect the completed forms the morning after the census night. The enumerator also had to note any uninhabited houses on his route. He then took the schedules home and copied them into his 'enumerator's book', this inturn was checked by his supervisor. Finally the books were sent to an office in London, where census clerks did the counting before the statistics were published.
The following pages contain details of individual and family ancestors, some pages include links to digital images of dwellings, street directories and location maps where ancestors were known to be living at the time of the census.