Census and Titheridge / Titheradge Family History

Census Data on Website

This week on our Family History Website I have published transcriptions of all Titheridge / Titheradge / Tidridge / Tytheridge etc. family members found in UK censuses 1841 – 1911. The transcriptions can be found at this LINK .

Introduction to UK Census

If you look up the word census in the dictionary the definition is “an official count of a population or class of things, often with various statistics noted”. In England the census began in 1801 as a count of individuals. Further head counts took place in 1811, 1821 and 1831. The purpose of the census was for the government to get information about the population size and growth.

The Government decided that the census would be held every 10 years. The 1841 census took place on 6 June 1841 and was the first census to record names and information about people. Future censuses took place on a Sunday evening in March or April. Sunday was chosen as the most likely day to find people at home and the spring months chosen as it was before the agricultural labourers were moving around for work.

The census has continued until present day but the 1941 census did not take place because of the war (although a mini census had taken place in 1939 to enable production of identity cards). There is a hundred-year rule, meaning that the census records are closed for 100 years. The next release of records will be the 1921 census to be released in 2022. The 1931 census records were destroyed during the war.

How did the Census happen? 

A date was chosen for the census, the questions decided, the paperwork printed and enumerators found. Enumerators were paid for their work; they had to be educated, able to read and write and do arithmetic and be trustworthy. Before 1891 only men were employed as enumerators. An enumerator was given an area of approximately 200 properties to visit. In the towns the houses could be close together with a multistory house being divided into many family units; while in the countryside properties could be spread across many miles.

The enumerator left a form and written instructions at each dwelling. On census night the head of the house had to fill in all those people present and sleeping in the house. The next day the forms were collected with the enumerator checking the forms, correcting mistakes or filling in the forms if necessary (remember many people could not read and write at this time). The forms were transcribed into a “Census Enumerators Book”, these are the images of the census you can see today. The original forms and book were sent to the Census Office and rechecked then the originals destroyed. It is only the 1911 census that you see the original forms as filled in by the head of house. Institutions such as poor houses, asylums, prisons, hospitals, residential schools, army and navy had special forms to fill in.

Finding People on the Census 

Before the arrival of the Internet to view a census record you would go to a record office and view micro film or microfiche images of the area and year you were interested in. There was no index and you would search page by page. It was a long and tedious task often with very little reward for a day’s work.

Today “Find My Past” and “Ancestry” both have the censuses available on line and they have all been indexed and transcribed. You enter the surname and instantly get a list of names. You must then view the image of the census because the transcriptions can have errors. In the original examining the neighbours and other members of the house is useful as often these are relatives e.g. a married daughter who is living next to her parents.

These searches of the census are not without their difficulties. The censuses have been transcribed by a variety of people and a surname like Titheridge will be alien to them. This often produces some wonderful transcriptions that are nothing like the surname. Careful use of a wildcard (*) will enable one search to find most variations of Titheridge etc.  Often there is very poor writing on the census, so the T at the start of the surname can look like an F, L, S or even P! Sometimes the “Ti” does not have a clear dot and gets transcribed “Te”.

For some individuals you will not find a record even though you are confident they were still alive. This could be due to the lost records, omitted individuals, transcription errors, people away from home or records with a strange variation to the surname recorded. A few individuals have been listed at work and at home. Individuals in Asylums provide a problem as inmates are listed by their initials. On the 1911 census suffragettes boycotted the census, hence they could be missing.

Lies and Errors

The census was made for the government and not family historians. Never could our ancestors have known that these census returns would be examined by family historians and lies would be discovered.

The census is a wonderful source of information often linking two or three generations together as families but be aware some information that might be an error or a lie.
Some misinformation that I have come across includes:-
• The terms son-in-law and step son used incorrectly, similarly daughter / daughter in law
• The wrong surname used, especially when a child was born illegitimately, or the mother has remarried
• Individuals claiming to be married or widowed when this was not the case
• Confusion about their age, when they just didn’t know how old they were! or lying about their age, especially individuals who married younger partners
• Lying about their relationships e.g. grandparents bringing up illegitimate grandchildren and calling them son / daughter

Information in the Census

The UK census returns will give family historians the following information
• Name
• Relationship to head of house
• Marital status
• Age
• Place of birth
• Address
• Occupation
• In 1911 two new questions were added, number of children and years of marriage.

What The Censuses Tell Us About the Titheridge / Titheradge etc Family

• People couldn’t spell the surname and there are many spelling variations on the census forms.

• The commonest Christian names for males were James and William and in every census these two names occupy the top two most popular names. In the 1901 census there are 31 individuals called William. Female names are more diverse and the commonest female names vary across the decades. 1841 – 1871 the most popular name is Sarah. Then across the years it is Elizabeth, Mary, Annie, Annie.

• There are only 16% of individuals over the age of 50 and this is quite constant across the decades. The number of people over 70 increases across the decades but the percentage stays reasonably constant. The oldest person in the census 90.

• The population of family members increases from the 1841 census to 1911 as shown below. It increases from 158 individuals in 1841 to 493 in 1911. This is in line with national trends.

 Table Showing the Number of Individuals found on the Census Over Time

Census Year	Number of Family Members on the Census	Number of Males	Number of Females	Number of Properties occupied by individuals
1841	158	89	69	61
1851	209	114	95	61
1861	241	125	116	84
1871	315	153	162	112
1881	353	163	190	126
1891	397	194	203	143
1901	445	215	229	161
1911	493	251	242	193

• The individuals gradually move from  rural Hampshire to London, with 4% of the individuals in London in 1841 but by 1911 26 % of individuals were in London.  The percentage in other counties stays relatively constant.

Table Showing the Number of Individuals in Hampshire and Other Areas on Census Over Time

Census Year	Per cent of Population Living in Hampshire	Per cent of Population Living in London / Middlesex	Per cent of Population Living in Essex, Kent, Surrey and Sussex	Per cent of Population Living in the rest of the country
1841	81%	4%	14%	1%
1851	78%	10%	10%	2%
1861	74%	12%	12%	2%
1871	70%	17%	7%	6%
1881	66%	13%	13%	8%
1891	61%	19%	16%	4%
1901	58%	26%	12%	4%
1911	51%	26%	16%	6%

If you want to view the census data that has been found for all family members from 1841 to 1911 it has been transcribed and can be viewed on our website at this link Census Data.