Genealogy Chat

I was looking at the genealogy section on the GMTV website and read this (below) does anyone know what happened to this 1801 census? The most famous survey of England's population, the Domesday Book, was compiled in 1086. It came into being for entirely practical reasons - William the Conqueror wanted to collect taxes from his subjects. It recorded who owned what in terms of land and livestock, and what it was worth. Taxes due were calculated from this value. At the end of the 18th century the idea of a comprehensive census was revived, and an Act of Parliament, passed in 1800, paved the way for 1801's census. It was in response to the Napoleonic Wars: John Rickman, a government official, championed the idea and managed the first four censuses, which recorded ages to the nearest five years and established how many men were fit to fight. After Rickman's death, the 1841 survey was the first to record the names of all individuals in a household or institution, and continues to this day.

census of England and Wales, and a separate one of Scotland, has been taken every 10 years since 1801, except for 1941. The census 1801-1831 The 1801 census, taken on 10 March, had a very different format from that of more modern censuses. Information was collected on a parish basis and there were no details on households. Forms for recording the information were distributed to each parish where the overseers of the poor, 'substantial landholders' and local clergy all had a responsibility to collect specific types of data. Once the statistics had been collected, they were sworn before the local Justice of the Peace and eventually sent to the Home Office. The results were then collated and laid before Parliament. The 1801 census asked local officials to provide information on the number of inhabited and uninhabited houses in the parish and how many families occupied them; the number of people in the parish and their employment; and numbers of baptisms, burials and marriages. A similar format was followed for the censuses of 1811, 1821 and 1831, with the addition of further questions. In 1811, the enumerators were asked to give more information about the reasons houses were unoccupied, so that the prosperity of the district could be more accurately gauged. In 1821 a question relating to age was asked, in order to assess numbers of men able to bear arms, and to improve the tables on which life assurance was based. More detailed questions on occupations from 1831 provided the government with economic information. The census 1841-1901 The census of 1841 was the first to record more detailed information. It is thus the earliest census generally used by family historians.

Thanks, 'Honey' for this. And Jennifer. Really useful info for someone like me, who's not been 'at it' for very long! Bx

Thanks Jennifer for that, shame it wasn't more detailed!

There is information about census on the GENUKI site. In some areas the census for 1801 - 1831 have survived because someone preserved them, ie for instance in one area of Buckinghamshire by a schoolteacher.