THE 1911 CENSUS

The 1911 talk by Brain Jones was very well attended, & as usual, the audience was not disappointed.Brian began with a quick comparison of the previous census returns, & then proceeded to show us the many extra benefits of the 1911 census.
To illustrate the added benefits, Brian had searched for his own Grandfather Jones, whom he could remember from his childhood.
Even with the name Jones’, he was quickly able to find both his grandparents in London, with two children at home. However, he was also able to discover that a 3rd child had been born & died before 1911 , as the census form asked for all children of the marriage, both living & deceased, to be included in the numbers.
The length of the marriage was listed and any children from previous marriages could be noted, both step children & ‘natural’ children.
There were the usual columns for sex, status, occupation, nationality, servants, & guests etc. also the number of rooms occupied by each family.
Some dwellings had several families each occupying a room, while some very small dwellings of only 2 or 3 tiny rooms had 3 generations living in them, so conditions would be very cramped.
The only information not available until 2012 was the column for ‘infirmities’ (deaf, blind etc). Institutions and very large houses were not listed under their titles e.g. Hospitals, Prisons, Workhouses, and Palaces etc. but would be accessed by searching for a name of a resident ..
for example ‘King George’ to find Buckingham Palace & then all the family, servants, etc. are listed.
The census gives a detailed idea of life at that time and the conditions that people were living in.
It should be noted that many women would not have been listed, such as Members of the Suffragette movement who refused to be counted, & left home for the day & night in a mass boycott of the Census. Over 600 women in London stayed in Trafalgar Square until 11.30pm & then went to the theatre until 1.30am & finally proceeded to another venue for breakfast in order to avoid the national count.
Not only could one download copies of the original sheets and various transcripts, but any errors found could be reported back & they would be corrected.
Brian admitted that he was very impressed with the results of his search, although he had spent rather more than he might otherwise have done, because he also searched various lines of his wife’s family.
It was the detail disclosed which was so impressive. He even proved that the return for his grandparents had been filled in by the enumerator, by comparing various key numbers & letters with the signature of the Enumerator in the summary at the end of the return. Grandfather Jones had never learned to write, therefore would not have been able to fill in his return, so the enumerator had to pressed into service.
[Judith Green ]