Family Historian User Group

Hi Forum, I wasn't quite sure where to post this so it's here...

I have recently discovered (with your help) how useful the info provided from Page 1 of any particular Census can be, it states where, as in geographical areas the Census was recorded. On that same page are other info such as Enumerator Districts and Enumerator District Number's along with County, Hundred, Blah Blah and Parish.

My question is how much of this do you record in Family Historian and where do you place it?
And how do you make use of it?

Thank you...

David,
My personal view is that it is irrelevant how the census was organised, such as Enumeration Districts and Sub districts etc. The information I want is the Town/area, and address, and a way of repeating the search. So I need Piece Number, Folio and Page. Anything else is superfluous, so I don’t store it in FH.
Obviously, this is strictly my personal view, and others may have strongly different views

David

I am with Mike and don't bother.

However, it would be easy to create it as a source in its own right and then attach it to the appropriate facts as well as the actual census page transcription.

Hi Colin - thanks, that is essentially what I have been doing to support the place details of the main transcription itself.

Thank you

For what it's worth - every other census in the world (well, those few that I've looked at! ) is organised using Enumeration Districts or whatever the local language equivalent is.

Class, Piece and folio is strictly The National Archives (TNA) and was applied by TNA after the GRO (England & Wales) handed the stuff over. Even the GRO used EDs etc and wouldn't recognise Class, Piece, Folio... It just so happens that, such is the usefulness of the TNA reference, that UK family historians working on the English & Welsh censuses ended up using it pretty much exclusively. Which means that the Elizabeth Shown Mills format for English & Welsh censuses looks (from memory) pretty odd for using the EDs.

If you try to use Scottish censuses, you'll find you're back to using EDs, etc.

Just one of those things....

Hi Adrian - I perhaps should have mentioned in my post, I'm working with Welsh Census Records and having fun finding the correct place amongst other things.

Thanks for your input - that was indeed useful to know the history behind these things.

Hi All, I did post more replies but they seem to have gone missing, so sorry if you miss a reply to your comment, but thanks to everyone for your help with this. I'll just use the Page One image to support the actual census transcript for place and area covered.

Many thanks all.

David,

I'm not quite so dismissive about the way the Census was organised/managed as some, although I would agree that the ED number is no longer important for finding online images, It was highly desirable when scanning images on microfilm not that many years ago, especially when trying to track down ancestors in large cities and can also give an impression of how the whole Registration District was managed and how close together the EDs and therefore distributed families were located.

In essence the 'first page' will often provide a very detailed image of the route the enumerator would have taken around the area he was responsible for gathering the household data for; and you might even find that the Enumerator was also an ancestor from the same ED, as they were almost invariably individuals who were very familiar with the area; and probably with many of the residents, as privacy wasn't of as much concern as it is nowadays. In short, if all you are interested in is gathering details of who lived where and who with on a particular date, then that first page may be (or seem) unimportant; but if you want to attempt to learn more about the locality ancestors lived in; and which may now be unrecognisable, then it can prove invaluable, especially if the description can be linked to a contemporary map.

Mervyn

David
The information page may not be necessary as a source record but I would always record the information contained. The enumeration district can be very helpful. On Ancestry if you scroll to below the search box and click on the England census 1881 (eg) a box to the right opens and you are able to choose county, parish and registration district. There you will find how many districts are in the place you want. Clicking on the district takes you to the first page of the piece where you will find the route and be able to assess if that is where your ancestor lived. If you only know the town or village by taking the districts one by one you will be able to know which parts of the area you have covered. Also if after some time you return to that ancestor if you have recorded the district number you know exactly what you need to cover or don't need to visit again. By looking at other pages you will often find more relatives.
Also as has been mentioned by looking at the piece as a whole you can discover a great idea of the area you ancestor lived. This can lead to a wider range of research building up your ancestor's story
Sorry to have gone on but the bare facts on the page is are only part of our ancestor's story.
Stay safe
Ann

Hi Mervyn and Ann. Thank you both for your posts. All views welcome. Ann I'm particularly interested in your example of how to use the ED along with County and Parish. I'll take a look at this.

Thank you both

@Ann - That method for searching by County, Parish and District number I found very useful, so easy to find what you are looking for once you have the Page 1 details at hand. I'll certainly be recording this data going forward.

Thank you Ann/All