talk report - june 2006
26 June: Mr Fred Holcroft - Census Schedules and local History
Mr Holcroft gave us another excellent talk. He discussed the advantages and disadvantages of census schedules and tithes. The Americans had their first census in 1800 with Britain following in 1801. The British Census was to do with the Napoleonic Wars as the government did not know how many men of fighting age there were in the country. This first census has now been lost but it counted the population using parish districts, but although participation was compulsory we do not know how true the results were. The drawbacks include the fact that the schedules are not available for the early censuses and only begin with the one taken in 1841. Even then the information is limited. There are no street numbers included and where they were they were liable to change and sometimes, for their own reasons the residents gave incorrect information.
However it is possible to gain some idea of population density, including names and family size, life expectancy, marriages, birthplaces and occupations.