Introduction
The 1841 census was taken on June 6.
It is filed at the Public Record Office in group code HO 107 (HO=Home Office).
Details the 1841 census can provide: Place: street name, house number or house name.
Houses: inhabited, uninhabited or a building.
Age and sex of each person:
Ages up to 15 are listed exactly as reported/recorded but ages over 15 were rounded to the nearest 5 years
(i.e. a person aged 53 would be listed on
the census as age 50 years).
Occupation/profession or trade
Birthplace, but only if the person was born in the county where the census was taken (usually recorded as a yes or no). If they were not born in the county there would be an entry such as S (for Scotland) or even an F for "born in foreign parts".
The end of each building is shown with two slashes // and the end of each household in a building is shown with one slash /.
A census is a complete population count for a given area or place taken on a specific date. The 1841 census is considered to be the first modern UK census. Each householder was required to complete a census schedule giving the address of the household, the names, ages, sexes, occupations and places of birth of each individual residing in his or her accommodation.
In 1841, the administration of the census passed into the hands of the Registrar General and the Superintendent Registrars (who were also responsible for the registration of births, marriages and deaths).
After information was recorded on pre-printed census schedules, a schedule was left with a household and later collected by the enumerator. If there was no one in the house who could write, the enumerator helped to record the information. The census enumerator then copied the information on the schedules into their official books known as census enumerators' books. Unfortunately, the original census schedules have been destroyed and it is the census enumerator's books that researchers see on the microfilm. Because the information in the books is a copy of the information on the schedule, there were often mistakes made in transcribing the information.
Reaction was sharp
and unfavourable, on theological grounds from those who believed that
"numbering the people" was blasphemous, and on more practical grounds
from a suspicion that the object was to extract more taxes, force a resettlement
of poor people or their emigration, or just plain getting to know too much about
the private individual.
The amount of information to be collected was therefore
restricted, and instead of sending strangers from London, local residents were
appointed as "enumerators". The idea was partly that they would get
more cooperation, partly that they would know more of what was required anyway,
so false information would be detected at source.
Households are normally set out in "natural order" with father first,
then mother and the children, then other relatives, servants, employees, lodgers
and visitors - but no relationships are stated, so the searcher may be mislead
by the unusual combinations, of brother and sister, nieces and nephews etc.
NOTE:
I have previously done full extractions for High Peak and parts of North East
Cheshires & Manchester. I have added to this from the UK data base names for
the 1841 census and as such captures all Marchington for the UK. However I have
found extracts that I physically done in the 1841 & 1851 census which where
not in the UK names data base as such caution should be used as its clearly not
full proof.