Category: heritage dates

The 1861 Census for Scotland was taken on the night of 7/8 April 1861. The following information was requested:

• Place (name of street, place, or road, and name or number of house)
• Name of each person that had spent the night in that household
• Relation to head of family
• Marital Status
• Age
• Sex (indicated by which column the age is recorded in)
• Profession or occupation
• Birthplace
• Whether blind, or deaf and dumb

Enumeration forms were distributed to all households before the census night and the complete forms were collected the next day by the enumerators. All responses were to reflect the individual’s status as of 7/8 April 1861 for all individuals who had spent the night in the house. People who were travelling or living abroad were enumerated at the location where they spent the night on census night. All of the details from the individual forms were copied into enumerators’ books and sent to the Registrar General’s office in London. These copies are the records we can view images of today. The original householder’s schedules were destroyed.

The clerks who compiled and reviewed the census data made a variety of marks on the returns. Unfortunately, many of these tally marks were written over personal information and some fields, such as ages, can be difficult to read as a result. More useful marks include a single slash (/) between households (families) within a building and a double slash (//) separating households in separate buildings.

The 1851 Census for Scotland was taken on the night of 30/31 March 1851. The following information was requested:

• Place (name of street, place, or road, and name or number of house)
• Name of each person that had spent the night in that household
• Relation to head of family
• Marital Status
• Age
• Sex (indicated by which column the age is recorded in)
• Profession or occupation
• Birthplace
• Whether blind, or deaf and dumb

Enumeration forms were distributed to all households before the census night and the complete forms were collected the next day by the enumerators. All responses were to reflect the individual’s status as of 30/31 March 1851 for all individuals who had spent the night in the house. People who were travelling or living abroad were enumerated at the location where they spent the night on census night. All of the details from the individual forms were copied into enumerators’ books and sent to the Registrar General’s office in London. These copies are the records we can view images of today. The original householder’s schedules were destroyed.

The clerks who compiled and reviewed the census data made a variety of marks on the returns. Unfortunately, many of these tally marks were written over personal information and some fields, such as ages, can be difficult to read as a result. More useful marks include a single slash (/) between households (families) within a building and a double slash (//) separating households in separate buildings.

The 1841 Census for Scotland was taken on the night of 6 June 1841. The following information was requested:

• Place (name of village, street, square, close, etc.)
• Name of each person that had spent the night in that household
• Age*
• Sex (indicated by which column the age is recorded in)
• Profession or occupation
• Where born**

*The ages of people over 15 years old were usually rounded down to the nearest 5 years. Therefore, someone who was actually 24 years would have their age listed as 20, and someone who was actually 27 years old would have their age listed as 25. If people lied about their ages, or if their real ages were not known or reported correctly, the gap between the rounded age recorded on the census and their actual age may be quite significant.

**The “Where Born” column only asked two questions – 1) whether born in same county, and 2) whether Foreigner or whether born in England or Ireland. Possible answers and abbreviations to question #1 include: Yes (Y), No, (N), or Not Known (NK). For question #2, the following abbreviations were used: England/Wales (E), Ireland (I), and Foreign Parts (F).

Enumeration forms were distributed to all households before the census night and the complete forms were collected the next day by the enumerators. All responses were to reflect the individual’s status as of 6/7 June 1841 for all individuals who had spent the night in the house. People who were traveling or living abroad were enumerated at the location where they spent the night on census night. All of the details from the individual forms were copied into enumerators’ books and sent to the Registrar General’s office in London. These copies are the records we can view images of today. The original householders’ schedules were destroyed.

The clerks who compiled and reviewed the census data made a variety of marks on the returns. Unfortunately, many of these tally marks were written over personal information and some fields, such as ages, can be difficult to read as a result. More useful marks include a single slash (/) between households (families) within a building and a double slash (//) separating households in separate buildings.