Census Returns 1841 - 1901
In 1801, the first official census was carried out in Britain and this was repeated every 10 years until 1841. In 1841, however, the first door-to-door, person-to-person census was carried out, and this has been undertaken every 10 years since that date.Since the information given at censuses is confidential, it is not released to the public until a century has elapsed, so the detailed enumerators' transcript books which we hold on microfilm cover only the years 1841-1891.The 1841 and 1851 censuses are especially important, since they were carried out before statutory registration of births, marriages and deaths was introduced in 1855, so they contain information not to be found elsewhere.

Information given in census returns: 1841

• Address of dwelling place
• Name of individual
• Age rounded down to the nearest five years
• Status, profession or occupation
• Whether the person was born in this county or not
• Whether or not the person is foreign

1851
As above, but the age is given accurately (subject, of course, to human error, or perhaps conceit!).The relationship to the head of the household is indicated, and each adult's marital status is given - married, unmarried, widowed.We are told in which parish a person was born, which is helpful when researching into the Old Parochial Records.

1861 onwards
In addition to the information above, these records tell us how many rooms in each house contained one or more windows. In the case of an employer, we are told how many people he employed.