Using the England & Wales censuses.
The first official government census was taken in 1801 and has, with certain exceptions, been taken every 10 years since. An undertaking was made that the records should remain closed to the public for 100 years.
Only persons actually sleeping at the address on the official night of the census are included.
Up to and including the 1901 census microfilm copies of the census enumerators' returns were produced and can be accessed in this format for local areas at many main libraries and County Record offices. The national set is available at The National Archives at Kew, London.
Many Family History Societies have indexed the surnames in the census records for their own areas. There was a joint project between the Federation of Family History Societies and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints to produce an online index of the 1881 census, and this is now available free to view on the church's Family Search website, and on Ancestry UK or Ancestry US
In recent years surname indexes of all the censuses have been completed and put online by Ancestry. There is also access from the index to the original images of the returns.
Information the census contains.
The 1801, 1811, 1821 and 1831 censuses were primarily head counts; a very few records of household names may exist in County Records offices, but generally speaking it is the 1841 census which first gave more details of household members.
1841 census: this gives the names of people dwelling in the household with only children's ages given exactly. Individuals aged 15 over had their ages rounded down to the nearest 5 years. So someone shown to be aged 20 could be as old as 24. Relationships between individuals is NOT shown. Place of birth is given as a yes or no (Y or N) answer as to whether they were born in the same county. The letters F (foreign parts), I (Ireland), and S (Scotland) may also be found for birthplaces.
1851 census onwards: other details are shown. Head of household and relationship to the head; exact ages (as given by the informant!), occupations, place of birth (though if ouside England and Wales, only the name of the country is likely to be given. There is a column to note infirmities such as blindness and deafness.
Remember that indexes are imperfect mainly through errors in copying. The surname indexes transcribed by local Family History Societies are often more accurate because their volunteers are familiar with local names.
Remember also that people may have given misinformation about their ages and circumstances to census enumerators - either unintentionally or deliberately.
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