| Search by |
The index records can be searched by Last name, First name, Age range, Birth county, County (see geographic coverage below) and Parish.
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| Geographic coverage |
1861 census records are available for all counties in England and Wales, Isle of Man, and Channel Islands.
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| Viewing the images |
Access to the images is provided directly from the index pages: you simply click View image button to retrieve and display the digitised image of the census return page. You can then browse backwards and forwards through the pages of the document.
Images may sometimes be difficult to read where original documents were damaged. If from your viewing of the images any of our index data is incorrect, please advise us.
Click here for help viewing images and maps
If you already have access to CDs or microfilm of the census images, the reference data shown in the "Details" page for each index record will be helpful. The following data is provided:
Reference data
- TNA Ref: This includes the TNA class (eg RG9 for the 1861 census), and the piece number, which identifies the microfilm roll containing the images of the original census returns.
- Folio No: This is the number of the folio (or sheet) printed on the original recto pages. Not always present.
- Page No: This if the page number printed or written on the original pages. The page and folio numbers can assist identification of the microfilm images.
- Entry No: This is the sequential number of the census entry on a page. This index value was is simply to aid location of the actual entry on the original page, and does not exist on the original.
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| Accuracy of the data |
It would be prudent to expect some inconsistencies between the index data and your own interpretation of the text on the census images.
In the case of people's names, our NameX software will allow you to retrieve relevant records even where spellings differ from the index. So you have an excellent chance of finding what you are looking for even if there have been mistakes in transcription. You can then check the original to see if you agree with the index. (And if you don't, please let us know.)
The original census records were created by enumerators who copied information written by the head of household on census forms distributed to each household. There are two possible sources of errors: the head of household may have been barely literate, and could have entered details incorrectly; the enumerator may have copied details incorrectly.
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| Out of county parishes |
When the census districts were created, these often overlapped county boundaries, so that although the census records are nominally organised by county, there will be some places within the census records for one county which actually lie within an adjacent county. You also should be aware that some parishes also overlap county boundaries, though generally the towns and villages within a parish lie within the one county.
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| Place of birth |
The place of birth is often quite difficult to read. It is obvious from some of the marks made on the original (eg ? alongside the name) that the clerical staff originally processing the returns could not identify places.
If born in England or Wales, the county is given; if in the Isle of Man this is shown, and if in the Channel Islands the island.
Where it was not possible to determine the birthplace, there is a question mark ("?") in that field. You may sometimes be able to make a guess at the place of birth from the original. (If you are confident that you have identified the birth county or country in situation where the index record contains a "?", please let us know.)
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| Age |
For babies this can appear as days, weeks or months, otherwise the number refers to years.
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| Households |
A convention is used to separate entries for one house and also multiple households within one house. You will see small diagonal line just before some forenames. A double line separate houses; a single line separates households within a house.
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| Vessels records |
For census returns from ships, etc, which were within the enumeration district area (eg at harbour or similar) on census night you can search just like any other census record. The parish field refers to the parish where the harbour was located. These returns were completed by the master of the vessel.
The name of the vessel and its home port for the vessel is given in the "Street" field: eg "ENTERPRISE, OF WEXFORD"; "ANNA PIZZORNA, OF GENOA, ITALY". You can always tell that the Street refers to a vessel because of the "OF [name of a seaport]". You can find out more about the vessel when you retrieve the image containing the entry.
For most vessels the list of crew is only one page, but occasionally, for larger vessels there may be more than one page, and sometimes also you will find that when you click the "next page" button the pages may be blank. But all vessels, there will be a page following those for the personal details which gives details of the vessel itself.
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| Institutions |
The returns for some institutions (eg workhouses, prisons, schools) are on special forms, others on the normal forms. But in all cases the name of the institution is shown in the Street field, even if it does not appear on the image of the original document.
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| NameX |
NameX is a proprietary name-matching tool which allows you to find family records for names which have common variations in spelling or which may have been spelled incorrectly on some records.
Click here for more help.
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