Public Records Office Reference RG11/2114 1881 Census Return for The Ecclesiastical Parish of Cerne Abbas Transcribed by Cerne Abbas Historical Society TRANSCRIPTION OF COLUMN NUMBERS IN 1881 CENSUS birth of each individual residing in his or her accommodation. More importantly, administration 1 No of Schedule passed into the hands of the Registrar General and the Superintendent Registrars (who were also 2. Road, Street and No, or Name of House responsible for the registration of births, marriages and deaths). 3. - 4 Houses (3. Inhabited, 4. Not in occupation, ) The enumerators’ books from the 1841 census onwards have been preserved. Theses books 5. Name and Surname of each Person contain names, ages, occupations and addresses, and from 1851, place of birth, marital status, the 6. Relation to Head of Family relationship of each person to the head of the household and the nature of any disabilities from 7. Condition as to Marriage which they suffered. 8. Age last Birthday of (L) Males (R) Females Apart from a few minor changes the basic structure of the census schedule did not change until 9. Profession or Occupation 1891. In 1891, householders were then asked how many rooms (if less then five) their family 10. Where Born occupied. Additional occupational data was also collected. 11. Deaf and Dumb, Blind, Lunatic, Imbecile, Feeble-minded A pre-printed census schedule was left with every household and later collected by the enumerator. If there was no one in the house who could write, the enumerator helped to record GENERAL INFORMATION ON CENSUS RECORDS 1841 - 1901 the information. The census enumerator then copied the information from the schedules into their Census records, like records of civil registration & parish records, are a key source of official books known as census enumerators’ books. These books and the schedules were then sent information for family historians. Census reveal who was living at a particular address in a to London, copied and the extracted information used for various local and national statistics. particular place on census night. Accuracy and Illiteracy: The census were conducted at a time when up to half the adult Every ten years, the census provides researchers with a snapshot of individuals and families across population were illiterate or at best, semi-illiterate. Many people would have found it difficult to the nation. It shows each person’s name, relationship to the head of household, age, and much read and interpret the instructions on the pre-printed schedules. Enumerators would often have more. The various census provide a critical link between government registered births, marriages found it difficult to read the poor handwriting of those who could write. This led ot inaccurate, and deaths (after 1837) and parish registers of baptism, marriage and burial. incomplete information, transcription errors, spelling variations and missing information. A national census has been taken every ten years in England and Wales since 1801, excluding Unfortunately, the individual schedules have been destroyed, so we will never know what exactly 1941. Instead, in 1941 a national registration took place and national identity cards were issued. was recorded, whether a family member wrote the information themselves, whether they were able The census returns for 1931 were destroyed, along with many other important records, during the to spell, or even whether the enumerator missed information completely. Second World War. The address of a household: Identifying a household is often a problem. In towns and urban Census for 1801 - 1831 were little more than simple head counts of the population. In areas, few houses were numbered until the end of the nineteenth century. In many areas street addition, the administration of these early census returns was quite different. These census were names and house numbers were periodically revised. In rural areas addresses are vague or not the responsibility of the Overseers of the Poor. provided at all. 1841 is considered the first modern census, when each householder was required to complete a census schedule giving the address of the household, the name, age, sex, occupation and place of Reading the Census: One great problems is trying to read the census enumerators’ books. For Definition of a room: Although available from the 1891 census, information on the number example, in 1841, the books were completed in pencil. In later census cheap ink was used that has of rooms in a household is not always clear. No instructions defining a ‘room’ are provided on the since bled and/or faded. lerks who compiled and reviewed census data made a variety of marks census schedule and the exact instructions given to enumerators is not readily available either. on the returns. Many of these tally marks were written over personal information and some There are instances where an enumerator recorded a 1 next to the address of a family living in a fields, such as ages, can be difficult to read as a result. More useful marks include a slash between house that still stands to this day, which is clearly at least 4 or 5 rooms larger. households within a building and a double slash separating households in separate buildings. Definition of a Household: What exactly constituted a household? This problem is Recording of Names: Researchers often have to use their imagination when attempting to link particularly evident in relation to how lodgers, boarders and different families renting rooms in the households and families across various census. Standardisation of surnames did not begin until same houses were enumerated. after the registration of births, marriages and deaths began in 1837. This together with illiteracy In some instances families of lodgers appear to have been treated as occupiers in their right. In and poor handwriting, means there were many variations in the spelling of surnames. The surname other instances it would appear multiple families sharing the same address were recorded as may even have been recorded phonetically. lodgers. Understanding Relationships: Although usually straightforward, the recording of Occupations: Job titles recorded in the census are often vague. In addition, whilst people were relationships between members of a household can sometimes present problems when trying to asked how many people (if any) they employed it is usually quite difficult to differentiate between identify stepchildren, relationships among lodgers, boarders and visitors. The term ‘Daughter-in- employers, self-employed and employees. The occupation of ‘dressmaker’ was commonly given by law’ can sometimes mean step-daughter as well as the more recognized meaning ‘son’s wife’. This prostitutes. is also true of interpreting ‘son-in-law’ and ‘mother-in-law.’ The marital status of householders is Birth Place: The place of birth information is usually fairly accurate although some people gave usually pretty clearly documented. The problem arises in trying to identify the spouse of a second as their place of birth their earliest remembered place of residence. marriage and common-law relationships. Common-law relationships are often hidden with Medical Disabilities: The recording of medical disability is probably one type of information on designations such as ‘visitor’, ‘servant’ or ‘lodger’. the census to be suspicious of. How old? The general rule in the 1841 census was to round down the age of adults to the nearest The information recorded was based on the following definitions: (1) Deaf and dumb (2) Blind 5 years. This rule was not always followed. Some ages were rounded down to the nearest 10 years, (3) Imbecile or Idiot (4) Lunatic. while others were recorded exactly. On the other hand, some people simply did not know their Aside from being poorly worded and inconsistent across different census, the stigmatism attached exact age. When the age of consent was 21, it was not unusual to find people lying about their to the label “idiot” was common even in the 19th century. Many families then, as now, were age in order to rent accommodation or get married. At the same time, the age of a child may be reluctant to admit that another famiy member was an ‘idiot’. falsified if that child was a worker and did not want to loose their job. For these reasons, the age recorded for an individual should always be treated with some caution. MENTAL OR PROFESSION or 1 ROAD or STREET 3 4 NAME AND SURNAME 6 7 8 WHERE BORN PHYSICAL OCCUPATION DISABILITY 1 Barton Farm 1 John Parry Head M 31 Farmer out of Business Witchampton, Dorset Rosalie Parry Wife M 32 Netherbury, Dorset Rosalie Parry Dau 3 Cerne Abbas John Parry Son 2 Cerne Abbas Joseph Sprake Visitor U 36 Farmer of 980 acres Hedgend, Blandford Ann Pester Servant U 27 Domestic Servant East Chinnock, Somerset 2 Dairy House 1 Henry Slade Head M 50 Dairyman Symonsbury, Dorset R J Slade Wife M 45 Netherbury, Dorset HA Slade Son U 20 Stoke Abbot, Dorset FCG Slade Son U 18 Stoke Abbot, Dorset AMJ Slade Dau 13 Stoke Abbot, Dorset LH Slade Dau 12 Scholar Stoke Abbot, Dorset IJ Slade Son 10 Scholar Litton Cheney, Dorset EJ Slade Son 7 Scholar Litton Cheney, Dorset 3 Dorchester Road 1 Joan Waygood Head W 71 Glanvilles Wooton, Dorset Thomas Waygood Son U 26 Labourer Minterne, Dorset 4 Dorchester Road 1 William Cheesman Head M 21 Labourer Cerne Abbas Annie Cheesman Wife 23 Briantspuddle Elizabeth Cheesman Dau 2 Cerne Abbas Harvey Cheesman Son 6m Cerne Abbas 5 Dorchester Road 1 John Way Edwards Head M 38 Farm Bailiff Taunton, Somerset Elizabeth Edwards Wife M 37 Wellington, Somerset Laura