Census Returns
Written by Angela Gooch on December 25th, 2007 in Census.
About the census returns
Census Reports were taken in England every ten years commencing in 1841. The earlier censuses show limited information, but more may be gleaned from later returns.
Data was collected from each abode moving along a street from house to house in an orderly manner. From this, it is possible to extract the street names, abode names and obtain a rough idea of the relative positions of the streets.
The enumerator wrote down the names of each person staying in an abode on the night of the census. The family historian would note that most of the population in the early/mid 19th century could not read or write, so misspellings of surnames often occurred.
The enumerator recorded their gender and tallied this at the bottom of each sheet. By adding these figures together, a population count for a particular street, and consequently the whole town, can be derived.
The occupations of the people were also recorded. This enables conjecture of what type of people lived in a certain street. Were they mostly low paid workers or were they professional people? This may also be a guidance to the type of properties on on street.
The ages of the occupants were recorded, along with their marital status and relationship to the head of the household.
On the earlier censuses, particularly 1841, the enumerator would round the adults’ ages to the nearest 5, at his discretion. So a 23 year old may be listed as being 20 or 25. Generally, the minors were listed with their correct ages. I have found instances where individuals did not know their age or indeed where they were born. These were entered on the census sheet as ‘unknown’.
The ‘place born’ was recorded on all the reports. However, in 1841 all that was required was to state whether one was born within the county or not.
Accuracy and Problems
Reading census returns is fraught with problems:
* The enumerator’s handwriting is in the old style of flourishing script, (nothing like modern writing), which is sometimes difficult to decipher.
* Sometimes the ink is faded, particularly in sections of the 1841 census causing complete pages to be illegible.
* Occasionally, the actual photograph of the image is out of focus.
* Facts and figures like a person’s age or where they were born are simply not known.
Other factors which will cause an imperfect analysis are:
* My own errors in reading, interpretation, calculation and typing
* the fact that I have discounted uninhabited houses or houses which are being built in the ‘number of abodes’ figures.
You get the drift!
This website is to provide a general insight to the people, their jobs, the general trend of the populations of Skegness.
It is by no means a mathematical exercise!
I will happily provide any copies of the census if you wish to examine a particular page.
