Author: jo

There was a census taken every 10 yrs from 1801 to date – the only one that is missing is 1941 due to the war. The 1801-1831 censuses were taken by the Overseers of the Poor and the Clergy, in the main they no longer exist but there are exceptions around.

It often depended on who answered the door on census night as to what information was give to the enumerator – so if mum and dad were out and the teenage son/daughter answered the door – the ages and places of birth given were often wrong. For example how would a child know the birth town of a parent?  This can be often wrong on the census, including wild guesses at ages! The other problem is that the householder was often illiterate and did not have a clue how their name was spelt, or they were not from the area and had a different accent – so what was written was down the enumerators interpretation of what was said!

Throughout all the censuses you will see the word ——— do ———- often in the midst of a line – this is the same as ditto or as above.

You will often see the word Windower for Widower too, and don’t forget words with a double s in them were often written as double f or f then s – eg: Glass could be Glafs or Glaff.

In 1841 the responsibility for the census returns was handed over to Registrar General and the Superintendent Registrars who were responsible for the recording of births, marriages and deaths following general registration in 1837.

The censuses become more useful the more recent they are and are subject to a 100 year rule to ensure the privacy of living people.

The first census completed by the Registrar General was in 1841 and was taken on the evening of the 6th June. This census has the least information and recorded:

place – often no house name or number was recorded
houses – shown inhabited/uninhabited/being built
name
age – separate columns for males and females
profession, trade, employment or independent means
born – Y or N for in County or S – Scotland, I – Ireland, F – Foreign

You will see that no relationships are given between people in the family. All ages 15 and above should have been rounded down to the nearest 5 year multiple, i.e. 15 may be 15-19, 20 may be 20-24, etc. Another point to remember for ages is that people often said that they “were in their 60th year” meaning that they had passed their 59th birthday. If a person gave information meaning they were in their 60th year, they will be shown as being 60, whereas strictly keeping to the rules, they should be recorded as 55.

The 1851 census was taken on the 30th March and improved as below:

house number and street
name and surname
status in the household and relationship to the head of the household
marital status – M – Married, S – Single, W – Widowed
age – column for males and females
rank, profession or occupation
place of birth – town and county
whether they were blind or deaf and dumb

The 1861 census was taken on the 7th April and appeared as above except there was an additional column regarding the houses and Uninhabited ones were shown as U, and those being built shown as B.

The 1871 census was taken on the 2nd April and was the same as the 1861 census except the last column was extended to show numbers if appropriate they were – Whether 1 – Deaf & dumb, 2 – Blind, 3 – Imbecile or idiot, 4 – Lunatic. Charming!

The 1881 census was taken on the 3rd April and was as per 1871 except age was age at last birthday.

The 1891 census was taken on the 5th April, it was as per 1881 except there were extra columns added for the number of rooms occupied if less than 5, whether that person was an employer or was employed or neither, the previous entries that had been two on previous censuses were merged to become number 3 – Imbecile, Idiot or Lunatic.

The 1901 census was taken on the 31st March, it was as per 1891 with the addition of a column for home workers and the term idiot was replaced with feeble-minded!

The 1911 census was taken on the 2nd April and was different in that it wasn’t taken by an enumerator it was completed by the householder, so for the first time you can see their writing and the signature of your relative! It contained the data that was in the 1901 census with additions for duration of the marriage, how many children had been born during the marriage, how many had died and how many were still alive, it also recorded any illnesses or conditions a person had and what age they were when that began. Householders often included the family pet on the census too Bob the Black Colly is listed as being born in the stable and being in charge of the mice!!

 

Family Tracing Case Studies

There are lots of reasons families lose touch but it is not going to stop you wondering to yourself one day “Oh I wonder what happened to my cousin Jonny”, or perhaps you are adopted and are curious about your birth parents and the wider family?

We can help you answer those questions no matter what you want:

·        Want to reunite with lost family?

·        Curious to just know about your birth family but do not want contact?

·        Want us to be an intermediary?

·        Whatever your wishes we have a suitable response for you.

​ Case Study 1 – The reunion of a Manchester lady with her birth family  

(NB all names and locations have been changed).

A basic knowledge of genealogy is of huge benefit when wanting trace living people.  You may know the persons details but not their current whereabouts.

Starting Point

Ann had visited social services and had been told her birth name was Karen Hunter and that she was born on 1st May 1970 in Manchester.

Ann knew that her mother, Mary Hunter , was 18 when she gave birth to her and already had an 18 month old daughter.  At the time of Ann’s birth, Mary was living at home with her mother (details unknown) at 123 Oldham Road, Manchester.

Records

My first port of call was Ancestry.co.uk.  This website holds the full birth, marriage and death registers from 1837 when general registration began.  These registers are not fully transcribed, however all are scanned and fully readable.

The first thing to understand is that the registers are held by year, each year is split into quarters – January-March, April-June, July-September, October-December – so for every year there are 4 registers.

The registers are compiled in alphabetical order – so the register may be 400 pages long but you can skip to page 200 if that’s where you think the surname you are interested in may be.

If the records for that church that you are looking at are transcribed there is a simpler way by searching on the persons details – Karen Hunter born 1970 Manchester.  This will bring back a transcribed record with a link to the original entry as detailed above.

It is important to remember the person you are looking for will appear in the quarter when their birth is registered.  So someone born mid-late December could quite possibly appear in the registers for the January-March quarter of the following year and so on.

Research

I located the birth registers and selected the year 1970, and the April-June register, and selected the initial H – I checked that a Karen Hunter was registered in that quarter – and she was, it showed her mothers maiden name to also be Hunter, showing that Karen had been born out of wedlock.

The fact that there was only one entry for that name at that time for the right area meant it as definitely the correct entry.

The next thing I did was to run a search on the birth records for Karens sister – I knew she was 18 months older than Karen and her mother would have the same maiden name.

A search on a female birth for 1968 in Manchester with the surname Hunter and a mothers maiden name Hunter revealed 2 matches – Samantha and Tracy.  So it could only have been one of the two.

Consulting the electoral roll for 123 Oldham Road, Manchester for the relevant period revealed that Mary Hunter was listed with another female named Doris Wild.  Ann knew that her mother Mary lived with her mother, so was Doris Mary’s mother?  If so why did she have a different surname?

I searched the marriage indexes for a marriage between a Doris Hunter and someone named Wild – sure enough there had been in 1962, she had married a Jack Wild.

Jack wasn’t on the electoral role so a quick search on him revealed he had died in 1967.  A search to see if Doris and Jack had had any children revealed the birth of two sons Paul and John Wild.

Doris had previously used the surname Hunter so I searched the marriage indexes again for a Doris marrying someone with the surname Hunter in the relevant area – searching around 1950 to allow for the marriage and birth of Mary.  There was one entry – Doris Brown had married Eric Hunter.  A search on Eric Hunter showed he had died in 1957, which explains Doris’s 2nd marriage.

I now knew that Ann’s birth mother was Mary Hunter and that her mother was originally Doris Brown. I also knew that Ann’s older sister was either Samantha or Tracy and that she had half uncles named Paul and John Wild.

I searched for any births recorded with the surname Hunter and the mothers maiden name Brown – there were 3 for the relevant area and one of those was Mary Hunter born 1952 – making her 18 in 1970 when Ann had been born, and the other two were probably her siblings.

Next Steps

Now I turned to researching Samantha and Tracy – presuming that they would by now be around 46 years old and probably married.  I searched the marriage records for both names and found marriages for both.

Social Media is a useful tool here – Facebook, Friends Reunited etc.  My first port of call was Facebook – I searched for Paul Wild and found two living in the relevant area – one of them was friends with a John Wild  – which fitted in with the brother.  Profile pictures and ‘About’ information on profiles often give valuable clues, even if the profile is locked down.

This was a relatively simple search assisted by a couple of unusual surnames and the fact none of them had ever moved away from the area.  This ended well with Ann meeting her birth mother, sister, uncles, aunts and younger brother.

The birth, marriage and death records were invaluable with the above scenario and demonstrates how useful it is to go backwards to come forwards again and identify siblings and spouses etc as a point of contact if not the person themselves.

Introduction of General Registration

Prior to General Registration in 1837 the government depended upon the church to record population details and record baptisms and burials etc.    However it soon became apparent the only records that were recorded were when the church had had an involvement with that individual ie they had baptised a child or buried a person.  Therefore all people that did not come into contact with the church had no records!  So general registration was introduced so all births, marriages and deaths could be recorded not just baptisms, marriages and burials.

Although general registration was brought in in 1837 there was some misunderstanding and people thought that baptism was the same as registering the birth of the child, so, in 1874 it became compulsory to register a birth within 6 weeks or you would be fined.  A birth certificate contains valuable information – particularly parents’ names.

 

All entries are collated and registered locally and every three months the registrar for the area sends the information to the General Records Office (GRO).  The GRO produce an indexed list for all registration districts and divide the year into quarters.  Someone born in January, February or March will be shown in the indexes as born in the March quarter.  Bear in mind someone born for example at the end of March may be shown in the registers for the April-June quarter as it is when the birth is registered not the date of birth that indicates which quarter the entry will appear in.  This also applies the deaths.

GRO Entry Quarters

January-March: shown as March quarter

April-June: shown as June quarter

July-September: shown as September quarter

October-December: shown as December quarter

Birth Certificates 

The information recorded on a full birth certificate is:

• Registration District & Sub District
• Register number
• When & where born (time also given if multiple births)
• Name
• Sex
• Name & Surname of Father
• Name & Maiden Name and previous married surnames of Mother
• Occupation of Father
• Description & Residence of informant
• Date Registered
• Details of name/s entered after Registration

There are two types of birth certificate a full certificate which will show the details as per above, however a short certificate only shows the name and date of birth of the child, their gender and where the birth was registered, a short certificate is issued free at the time of registration, whereas you need to pay a fee for a full birth certificate.

Where the fathers name was missing from the birth certificate it implied illegitimacy. From 1875 the reputed father HAD to be present at the registration to consent to his name being added. Illegitimacy may also be proved by a subsequent marriage of the parents but in such circumstances you cannot assume that this husband was in fact the father of the illegitimate child, unless there is some other known clue to confirm this.

When a time is given, this may indicate a multiple birth, such as twins or triplets – so look for another child born on the same day to evidence siblings! When extracting the information pay special attention to the address as this will point you in the right direction to find the family in the census returns, directories, poll books or workhouse records.

Birth Certificates for Adopted People

It is important to note that in respect of people who have been adopted there is two birth certificates.   The original one with the birth parents details on and upon adoption a second birth certificate is issued with the adoptive parents details on.  More importantly you must bear in mind that the two certificates are not linked to each other in any way, therefore protecting the persons original details.

Marriage certificates

A marriage certificate will show :

• Registration District
• Place of Marriage
• Register entry number
• Names of Parties
• Age of Parties
• Status and Occupation
• Residence at time of marriage
• Father’s name & occupation – for bride and groom and deceased if that was the case
• Method of marriage – banns, licence, certificate etc
• Signature or mark of the couple and witnesses

Take note of witnesses – they often tend to be a sibling of the bride or groom!Ages on a marriage certificate can be inaccurate or at the very least suspect.  No exact age may be shown and it may simply be recorded that bride or groom was “of full age”.  This implies an age in excess of 21 years.  This may be incorrect purposely to avoid the bride/groom having to obtain parental consent.  Where an actual age is given, it is usually reasonably accurate but it may also have been altered for a variety of reasons.

Be wary of an address which is the same for both parties – this was often used to avoid paying two sets of banns fees if the bridge or groom lived in a different parish.

Marriages usually took place in the parish of the bride.The absence of a father’s name and occupation usually meant he was unknown, although the columns may have been left blank as a matter of course. This may be a good clue to two possibilities, that of illegitimacy or that the father was dead at the time of the marriage. If the father was dead then the word deceased was usually written alongside it. The inclusion of the name of the father without the word deceased did not automatically mean that he was alive at the time of the marriage.When searching for a marraige record assume there are 30 years between generations and assume men married around 25 yrs old and women around 20 yrs old, perform wide ranging searches to view the most results.  Most importantly do not assume anything until you have the relevant certificate evidencing an event, such as the details of the fathers from a marriage certificate.

Death Certificates

These carry the least information from a genealogical point of view but they are nevertheless important sources particularly when the interest is concerned with the cause of death in relation to hereditary conditions etc. it is also valuable when trying to locate wills and other probate documents.

Death Certificates usually include the following information:

• Registration District & Sub District
• Register number
• When & Where Died
• Name & Surname
• Sex
• Age (including statement of parentage in the case of a child)
• Occupation (including that of the husband of  a married woman or widow)
• Cause of Death
• Description & Residence of Informant
• When Registered

From 1837, the only information requested was Date and place of death, name, age, sex, occupation, and cause of death.

In 1969, the information showed, date and place of birth, address and, if the deceased was a married woman, her maiden name.

Although up to 1874, the onus on registering a death was placed on the registrar, the information was provided by an informant. Later it was the responsibility of the next of kin or closest relative of the deceased to ensure the death was registered.

You will find causes of death described in various ways, e.g. fever, turn of life, decay, water on the head, decline and other strange sounding causes!

Beware of inaccurate ages on death certificates. Often informants were not sure or did not know how old someone was and so they guessed. The Coroner is usually the informant in the case of a violent or unusual cause of death where an inquest took place. If a death certificate reveals such information, then look further for local newspaper reports of the inquest and also see if a Coroner’s report has survived.

Where to find a birth, marriage or death certificate

A birth, marriage, death or adoption certificate can be found/ordered from the GRO, this will show the registration district of the entry and the GRO reference number to allow you order a copy.  There are other places you can locate a certificate such as some commercial websites .  However if you know enough about the person then you can view a copy/order at the register office where the event was registered.  If you choose to do it manually you can go to your local library who hold microfiche copies of these entries and you can take the details from the microfilm if you don’t wish to purchase a copy of the certificate.

What advantages would a genealogist in Scotland have over one in England during 1855?

The most useful additions to Scottish certificates are:  in a birth certificate – the details of the parent’s marriage – so you don’t need to do any research to find their marriage – on a marriage certificate – the mothers and fathers details of both the bride and groom not just the fathers details as with English ones and on death certificates – the names of the deceased’s mother and father.

In Scotland during the first year of registration in 1855 certificates also provided other details: birth certificates showed the parents ages and place of birth, details of other siblings, marriage certificates showed the bride and grooms usual place of residence and details of any previous marriages, death certificates showed where the deceased was born, married and buried but also details of all living and deceased brothers and sisters.  Unfortunately all this extra information only applied during 1855 as the amount of work would not permit its continuance.

Other ways to find out about births, marriages and deaths other than certificates are by:

·        Searching on the internet/newspapers and looking for announcements (more relative to more recent events), announcements often name other family members and provide dates and locations of events.

·        The IGI website has millions of records transcribed from original parish records, bishop’s transcripts etc plus user submitted family trees.

·        By researching Parish Registers where the christening, marriage or burial took place.

·        Family recorded events often noted down in a family bible.

·        Other online public Family Trees – often you will find more than one person researching your ancestor and may have the same individual in their tree – always check for an original source and don’t presume!

The importance of analysis of original records

It is important to view an original document as often this will provide extra details that don’t appear in an indexed document.  For example from analysis of a birth certificate you can identify a father’s name and mother’s maiden name from this you can often guess when they married, then search for a marriage with those surnames, which upon identification of the marriage certificate leads to the parents ages at marriage (giving an idea of where to look for their birth) and where they lived (good indication of where to find them in the census’s) and details of their fathers/parents.

Often the informant of an event or witness to a marriage is a relative of the bride or groom.  Therefore it is vital you pay attention to all information you discover from this original source which means it is correct and not subject to mis-transcription or presumption.  Many records are transcribed by people who are not local to an area or even country, so something that is obvious to someone familiar with a name, area or country can often be mistranscribed unintentionally.

Some websites such as Ancestry allow you to make an edit note if you find a mistranscription – this  note will not alter the mistranscription but will return this record on a search based on the edited information.  For example if someone was mistranscribed as Ann Archer and she should have been Ann Acker adding the correct name of Acker will return Ann Archer on a search.

ASYLUM AND WORKHOUSE RECORDS

Asylums and Workhouses

More to follow but for now below are some reasons that you may be admitted to the asylum!!

Click the images for a clearer picture.  When you have a had a look at these you will see that we should all at some point have been admitted to the Lunatic Asylum!

Did you know that the Workhouse and Asylum where the origins of the NHS?

So what are some of these things that could land you in the workhouse?

Exposure and Quackery?? Whats that ? Well it’s when someone has been exposed as pretending to be someone from the medical professions – hence the term “Quack” for a doctor!

hereditary Predispotion  – meaning you are predisposed to a condition one of your parents may have – not necessarily that you have it.

So lots of bizarre reasons but what about laziness, mental excitement, imaginary female trouble, Salvation Army, greediness? They hardly sound like a reason you ought to be in the asylum – however they used as excuses by husbands to get rid of their wives! Charming – gents don’t try this now it doesn’t work (my husband to pay particular attention please!).

And what about novel reading, politics, falling from a horse? Well they weren’t saying that reading a novel has made you insane but that depending on what you were reading it could make you insane.  A bit like modern day fears that playing violent video games could make you violent in real life!

More to come:)

In the early 1800’s there were only 8 asylums in England caring for paupers and supported by local charities. For the rest of the country their “lunatics” were housed in Poor Law Workhouses or Madhouses that were privately licensed under the Madhouse Act of 1774.  As little was known about caring for people deemed as lunatics they were often mistreated and not cared for and they ended up in the Workhouse. Eventually the County Aslyum Act was passed which in 1845 made it compulsory for every county to have its own asylum, the intention being that those that needed care would receive therapeutic treatments in the hope of curing them, but due to issues with the Act only 20 county asylums were built.

Here is a brief history of some of more reknown asylums in England including some haunting pics to fire you imagination a bit too! PICS TO COME!

Whittingham Asylum, Lancashire – Opened in 1873 and over a period of time became the largest mental asylum in Britain.  The asylum eventually became Whittingham Psychiatric Hospital closing in 1995. In 1949 Whittingham housed over 3000 people – my poor great aunt Clara was one of these and she died here.  I believe Clara was sent there because she had an infectious disease and she spent her last few weeks in the sanatorium she was only 21 years old.  RIP Clara.

Hellingly Asylum – Sussex – what an awful name!  Opening in 1903 and closing 1994 at its peak housed over 2000 patients.

Severalls Asylum – Essex – sound sinister too.  Opened in 1913 and closed in 1997 at its peak housing around 1800 patients.

Stanley Royd – Yorkshire