The Census: A Guide for Users

After teas and coffees and a chance to socialise and chat, over 60 members sat down to be taken by Dr Paul Jennings on a journey through the decades of the census. He brought to life a fascinating subject that many of us know little about, and punctuated the story with census data from his own family history.

We learnt that beginning in 1801, despite concerns even then about “invasion of privacy”, simple population counts were undertaken every ten years. Officials who supported the count, known as enumerators from 1841, had laboriously to transcribe by hand all details from individual schedules into large registers. We were told that the records from 1931 went up in smoke in 1942, and that since the 1921 census individuals’ details remain confidential for 100 years.

Paul illustrated his talk throughout with extracts of original census registers - with, for example, some names being assigned “FP” by 1841 if the individual had been born in Foreign Parts - and with contemporary cartoons. He gave as an example Valley Road in Harrogate where just one of the residents in 1901 had been born in the town.

There was time at the end for feedback and questions from the audience and then we were reminded that Paul will host a hands-on workshop at the Library on 11 April where members will be able to bring along their own census and similar research, investigate the local studies materials, ask questions and seek advice.