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1901
Census Online >> 1861 Census for England
1861 Census for England
The 1861 Census for England was taken on the night of 7 April 1861.
The following information was requested:
- Name of road, street,
etc
- House number or name
- Whether or not the house was inhabited
- Name of each person that
had spent the night in that household
- Relationship of person enumerated
to the head of the family
- Person's marital status
- Age at last birthday (sex is indicated
by which column the age is recorded in)
- Person's occupation
- Person's place of birth
- Whether blind, deaf, or idiot.
Enumeration forms were distributed to all households a couple of
days before census night and the complete forms were collected the
next day. All responses were to reflect the individual's status as
of 7 April 1861 for all individuals who had spent the night in the
house. People who were traveling or living abroad were enumerated
at the location where they spent the night on census night. All of
the details from the individual forms were later sorted and copied
into enumerators' books, which are the records we can view images
of today. The original householders schedules from 1841 to 1901 were
destroyed.
The clerks who compiled and reviewed the census data made a variety
of marks on the returns. Unfortunately, many of these tally marks
were written over personal information and some fields, such as ages,
can be difficult to read as a result. More useful marks include a
single slash between households within a building and a double slash
separating households in separate buildings.
How the census forms are organized:
Census returns were collected according to registration district.
These returns were divided into sub-districts and assigned consecutive
piece numbers for reference purposes. The piece numbers begin in
London with number one and work roughly south to north, followed
by the Welsh districts and then the Isle of Man and Channel Islands.
You will find the piece number on a paper strip at the bottom of
every image, following the PRO class number. There may be hundreds
of pieces within a county.
In addition to the piece number, each page of the returns includes
a folio number and/or a page number. The folio number was stamped
onto every other page before microfilming and is located in the upper
right hand corner of the image. Folio numbering usually starts over
at the beginning of each piece. The page number is part of the printed
form and is found on every page in the upper right hand corner. The
page numbers start over at the beginning of every enumeration district.
A full reference number for a record in the 1861 census includes
the PRO class number (RG9), the piece number, the folio number, and
the page number. Keep in mind that you may have to look at several
enumeration districts to find the page you want within a given folio
since the page numbers start over with every ED.
Known problems with 1861 piece numbers:
* Pieces from RG9 where all parishes are missing (we do not have
ANY records for these pieces):
145 407 903 1234 4015 4131 4196 4344
219 601 1039 3388 4022 4137 4291 4389
# Pieces from RG9 where one or more parishes are missing (we have
SOME records for these pieces):
217 690 2211 3913 4027 4143 4173 4211 4265 4295 4330
220 758 2247 3984 4041 4146 4174 4225 4266 4298
229 837 2365 3991 4077 4149 4178 4228 4270 4299
473 863 2625 4010 4078 4154 4184 4231 4272 4301
485 952 3278 4013 4079 4161 4185 4256 4274 4304
499 1047 3652 4014 4132 4163 4187 4261 4276 4309
541 1194 3735 4024 4133 4164 4190 4262 4280 4314
565 1984 3855 4025 4138 4165 4202 4263 4290 4319
# Piece number "98" was not used.
Connecting piece numbers and localities:
To identify which parishes
or townships are included in a piece, please use The National Archives
online catalogue. Search the catalogue
by entering the series code and the piece number, e.g. RG 9/217,
in the box in the upper left that says "Type reference here."
Alternatively, you can search the catalogue vice-versa (identify
which piece number a particular parish or township is part of) by
putting a place name in the "Word or phrase" field and "RG
9" in the "Department or Series code" field.
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