Using the 1901 UK census

Unlike the recent 1911 Census, the 1901 census is readily available through various online Genealogy sites such as Genes Reunited and Ancestry among others as well as through the official website at 1901censusonline.com. You can even purchase the transcripts of this census on cd-rom for your own personal use, these are usually provided by county, although they very rarely come with indexes by surname, so you do need to know a little information if you dont want to wade through the entire cd page by page.

The 1901 Census took place on the night of 31 March 1901 and like previous census returns it can reveal invaluable information for the family historian. All 32 Million entries for this return have been transcribed in order to provide an index that can be searched across the whole of England and Wales. You can also view an image of the original enumerators return directly online from the index. In most cases the index can be searched for free but to view the transcription or image will cost, these costs vary depending on what sites you use ( I have found Ancestry.com to be one of the best subscription services not only for the census retruns of 1841 to 1901 but for possibly one of the largest collections of family history related documents on the web).

Once you have done your search by the Surname of the ancestor your trying to trace and have found the return you require you will be able to find out where they lived, age, marital status, if not the head of the family their relationship to that person, occupation and place of birth. If at all possible try and narrow your search field by using the Surname and believed or known area of residence in the search parameters.

if you would like to keep a record of the document but don't want the expense of purchasing the image, go for the cheaper option of viewing the transcription and entering the information on one of the free blank census forms that are available, I have found the best one to be that freely provided by Ancestry.com.

If you have access to copies of the original images from the enumerator books then the following is a guide to what you will see and what all of this information means, I will also attach an example form from my research so you can see a form that has been filled in.

Somewhere on the image (it varies) you will see a reference number this is made up of several pieces of information the first being RG13 this is the Public Records Office reference for the 1901 census it is usually followed by a backslash and another number which is the Piece Number so for example you may see RG13/3115 this is followed by the folio number and the page number from that folio. These are the reference numbers that will take you to the exact document that you discovered your ancestor on, so are useful if you need to get a copy at a later date.

The top row of information on the form usually gives you information about the area the census is for, so you will see the first box is for Administrative County. The row also lists variou Parish, District and Borough information (depending on where the page is for some of them may be blank), the importanat one for Family Historians is the Town or Village which is the top right piece of information and is the town or village were the census was taken.

Now we come to the more interesting parts of the form:-

column 1 is No. of Schedule and it shows just that the number of the actual schedule
your ancestor completed.

column 2 is ROAD,STREET, &c., and No. or Name of HOUSE in some small villages this may be blank, but generally this records the number of the house and the street it was on, do take into consideration that numbering systems do change so even if the street is still there the number may not be the actual house of your ancestor.

column 3 - 6 is Houses in the 1901 census this was broken into 4 columns that indicated whether the house wa inhabited or not.

column 7 is Number of Rooms occupied if less than five this one is fairly self explanatory. You will see backslash marks usually between column 6 and 7 these signify a different family in two ways, a single line usually shows two or more nouseholds (families) in a single house, and two lines usually shows a new house.

column 8 is Name and Surname of each Person the good stuff, don't forget the wife will carry her married name so look for clues to her maiden name in the other members of the household. Also remember these records are transcriptions so names may be spelt incorrectly, so a bit of detective work and lateral thinking can be needed.

column 9 is RELATION to Head of Family the person shown as head was usually the oldest male but this was not always so. You'll see such records as wife, son daughter (usually abbreviated to Daur) but watch out for the ones that give other clues like son in law, brother in law etc., Also pay attention to things that show a bit about the signs of the times, and how our ancestors lived like Boarder or Serv (Servant).

column 10 is Condition as to Marriage here you will see abbreviations that recorded marital status, M (Married) S (Single) and Wid (Widow or Widower).

column 11 and 12 is Age last Birthday of then seperate columns for Males and Females, the ages can vary by upto 2 years sometimes because their real age wasn't known and some times because the wrong age was given on purpose. Also bear in mind that this is age at last birthday so someone born in May 1890 for example will appear as 10 and not 11.

column 13 is PROFESSION OR OCCUPATION although usually self evident, there can be a few issues, children were nearly always shown as scholars but this didnt necessarily mean that they attended school. You'll no doubt see occupations and wonder what they were especially as you go further back in time. A good book that can help here is "A Dictionary of Old Trades, Titles & Occupations by Colin Waters".

column 14 is Employer, Worker or Own account useful in seeing if your ancestors had their own business.

column 15 is If Working at Home this was an interesting column with one of my ancestors who was a Framework Knitter, he was shown as working at home. I didn't even know what a Framework Knitter was but after some research I found out and it became clear that it was a popular cottage industry hence the working at home.

column 16 is WHERE BORN this is where you can find ancestors that have moved into different areas, my family were always saying about being Lincolnshire born and bred, turns out my Gran was from Yorkshire, as well as causing a giggle I now knew where to look for her family. The enumerators were supposed to record Parish and County, but in many cases just county was recorded, also if you were born in Scotland, Ireland or Overseas only the Country had to be recorded.

column 17 and the last column was for recording certain medical conditions such as deaf and dumb, blind, lunatic or Imbecile, feeble mided, another insight into the signs of the times, don't ignore these types of items as they are all part of the colour of your families lives.

After 63 years and 7 months on the throne, the longest reign of any British Monarch to date Queen Victoria died on 22 January 1901 at the age of 81. The period centred on her reign is known as the Victorian era, a time of industrial, political, and military progress within the United Kingdom, and Victoria was the last British monarch of the House of Hanover; her son King Edward VII belonged to the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

Her eldest son, Prince Albert Edward, Prince of Wales becomes King, reigning as King Edward VII until 1910. His son, Prince George, Duke of York becomes Duke of Cornwall.

In the United States President William McKinley begins his 2nd term. Theodore Roosevelt is sworn in as Vice President of the United States. Roosevelt became the 26th President of America later that same year when McKinley was assassinated by anarchist Leon Czolgosz.

This year also saw the Royal Navy launch its first Submarine and Michigan schoolteacher Annie Taylor being the first person to go down Niagara Falls in a barrel and survives.