Details the London Census can provide
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Full name, exact age, relationship to head
of household, sex, occupation, parish and county of birth,
medical disabilities and employment status. (Exact information
included varies between census years — see the London
Census Facts page for more details.)
The Census is arranged by Registration
District and Sub-Districts with Street Indexes for areas of
high population.
Definitions
Piece number
(Normally contains between 100-400 pages)
A PRO reference number
referring to a number of Enumeration Districts represented
by a file RG9-XXXX (XXXX = piece number).
Enumeration District
This refers to a group of streets and has a special
sheet listing which streets are in the following pages.
Folio
(Reference to two pages). The original book pages
were stamped with a folio number on every other page in the
top right-hand corner. |
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London Census Enumerators’ Books
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Hyde Park Corner
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Each householder was required to complete a census schedule giving
the address of the household, the names, ages, sex, occupations
and places of birth of each individual residing in his or her accommodation.
In 1851 householders were asked to give more precise details of
the places of birth of each resident, to state their relationships
to him or her, marital status and the nature of any disabilities
from which they may have suffered. In 1891 householders were asked
how many rooms (if less than five) their family occupied and additional
occupational data was collected.
The enumerator then collected the census schedules and these were
copied into census enumerators’ books. The way these are grouped
may mean that a road is split over several folios with other streets
in between. In this case the street indexes should list a series
of folio references.
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Although the original census schedules were destroyed many years
ago, the books were kept and eventually moved to the PRO archive.
The books were then filmed in 1970 to prevent the increasing usage
from destroying these fragile records.
You may find the odd torn or mutilated page but in general the
records have survived in remarkable condition considering the heavy
usage they have had. |
