Census Returns

A census is a record of the people and households in a country which is used by government and other organisations to allocate resources and plan services. The census is taken every 10 years with the next one in Britain being due in 2011.

Because of its very nature the census provides a wealth of information for the genealogist. The General Register Office (GRO) in Edinburgh holds all the census returns for Scotland from 1841 onwards. There is a hundred-year rule which ensures total confidentiality for all census entries for one hundred years from the date the census was taken. The 1901 census was released in 2001.

The first census in Scotland was taken on the night of 6th June 1841 and then every 10 years thereafter (except for 1941) and the later ones give the following information: address, name, age, occupation, relationship to head of household and birthplace. It is essential to know where your ancestor lived as the census is arranged by location and not by name.

The 1841 census was actually the 5th decennial census of the population of Britain but it was the first one where the names of individuals within households was recorded.

Interestingly, for the 1841 and 1851 censuses all adults (over the age of 15) had their age rounded down to the nearest 5 years. This often leads to confusion as people were prone to mislead the enumerators by knocking off a few years themselves anyway. Sometimes a person recorded on an early census can appear to be 10 or more years younger than they actually were. The information was only as good as the enumerator who recorded it and some ignored these instructions and logged the stated age.

The GRO has a computerised index for the 1881 and 1891 censuses where you can search on name, but given that there are usually many people of the same name the more clues you have the better. The GRO is part way through a digitisation programme where they are scanning the census entries and making them available on a computer screen.