1861 Census

The 1861 census was carried out on the night of Sunday 7th April 1861. It was carried out by the Registrar General, while previous censuses had been the responsibility of the Home Office. The arrangement is therefore slightly different, and for some reason the 1861 census is less complete in its coverage than the censuses before or after it.

The columns in the 1861 census are as follows:

1. Number of schedule
2. Road, street, etc and number or name of house
3. Houses – inhabited or uninhabited (U) or building (B)
4. Name and surname of each person
5. Relation to head of family
6. Condition (i.e. married, widowed, single, etc)
7. Age of males/females
8. Rank, profession or occupation
9. Where born
10. Whether blind or deaf-and-dumb

Indexes, transcriptions and images can be seen at the websites listed at census. A partial index to the 1861 census for our area can be seen at the Society Research Room. The relationship between the PRO Piece Numbers and the District names are listed below.