| When people are researching their British Isles | | | | different census. A middle name could sometimes |
| family tree connections, often the census data | | | | appear once a mother has died and then we have |
| can appear baffling to them. Perhaps they have | | | | the cases where a person was know by a |
| accessed a commercial website and paid to | | | | nickname or pet name, like one of my |
| download the image of their long lost family | | | | grandmothers, in cases like this it can often be |
| members and were presented with an official | | | | written down instead of her actual name. One |
| form covered in often hard to decipher | | | | more thing, north of the border it was usual for |
| handwriting and also what would seem to be a | | | | Scottish widows to revert to their maiden names. |
| whole bunch of pen strokes that to all the world | | | | Professions. |
| appears to be scoring out of some of the | | | | We all like to exaggerate a bit and so did our |
| information. | | | | ancestors. A carpenter may become a joiner or a |
| Lets start at the top! | | | | merchant seaman could claim to be a master |
| The Header. | | | | mariner. Another thing to think about is where |
| The Header contains the Location. That is broken | | | | your ancestor had two or more jobs. Which |
| down into sub sections, for example: the | | | | would have been noted in the schedule? |
| administrative county; the civil parish, etc. | | | | Place of Birth. |
| Administrative areas often changed and so, even | | | | This could change depending on your ancestor |
| though it may seem that at first glance your | | | | actually knowing it. You should give some |
| forebears had moved district in between the | | | | consideration to the fact that when some |
| census, it is possible that it was only the | | | | counties changed their names or their boundary |
| administrative division that had changed. Also | | | | lines moved, that your family member's place of |
| beware of house number changes or street name | | | | birth has been changed. |
| changes. I had one in my tree where 2 Densham | | | | If Deaf and Dumb; Blind, Lunatic, Imbecile or |
| Terrace, was 80 North Road and is now 199 | | | | Feeble Minded. |
| North West Road, Plymouth! | | | | Don't fear the worst as this covers a variety of |
| Schedule Numbers. | | | | medical conditions with little option for degree of |
| A common mistake is to think that the column on | | | | ailment. The options offered are a bit stark to the |
| the far left of the document gives you the house | | | | modern politically correct twenty-first century |
| number - it is in fact the Schedule number! With | | | | dweller. |
| the exception of the 1911 England 7 Wales | | | | Double strokes. |
| census, what we are looking at, when we | | | | If you now scan the document from the top to |
| download a census, is a page from the | | | | the bottom you will not fail to notice the insertion |
| Enumerator's book. The far left column, then, lists | | | | of two parallel strokes beside the details of some |
| the number of the original schedule filled in by the | | | | entries. What does this mean? This mark shows |
| head of the household. These schedules are not | | | | us the start of the next household unit. So every |
| available any more with the exception of the | | | | name that is listed in between the two sets of |
| 1911, which is why you can get to see the | | | | parallel lines are part of the same household. |
| handwriting of the person that filled it in! | | | | So, the downloadable census collections are a |
| Names. | | | | great tool for the family historian, providing us |
| Beware that ancestors can vary their names | | | | with fantastic insight into our departed family, but |
| across census! My Great Aunt Winnie appears as | | | | the information has the ability to confuse as well |
| Eveline Winnifred and Winnifred Eveline on | | | | as to inform. |