talk report - JANUARY 2008
23 January: Enumerators Walks - William Huyton
Mr Huyton gave a very interesting talk about the problems involved in locating the place where ancestors were living when the censuses were taken. He began by giving a brief outline of the history and purpose of censuses and then talked about how the 19th Century censuses were organized. The tasks of the enumerator were then listed:
1. Identify the area for which the census was to be taken.
2. Identify the households in that area and issue each one with a form.
3. Collect the forms and ensure that they are correctly and accurately filled in. (There is
no logic to the order in which this was done).
4. Enter the forms into a book. Job descriptions changed over time according to a
standard set down centrally so the job description could change from census to
census while the job actually stayed the same.
Place of birth entries are the least
reliable entry as adults only knew where they were told they were born.
5. The book was sent to London to be checked and for the population statistics to be
assessed.
6. The enumerators got paid 2/6p per 100 persons recorded.
The search that resulted in this project came about because a family called Al(l)cock was given as living in 1841 at Spring Cottage, in 1851 at Brookfield Green, in 1861 at Narrow Lane and in 1871 again at Brookfield Green. Had they moved? Or had the address changed? The area is situated at the lower end of Aughton next to Maghull. Mr Huyton's conclusions were that the family had always lived in the same house at Brookfield Green, but because of the direction in which the enumerator walked to gather the information and the local usage of names to describe the locality it appeared differently on each census. However, Mr Huyton could identify the house by the names of neighbours which confirmed its location.
A very interesting talk which shows how difficult tracking one's ancestors can be.