1841 CENSUS ENTRY FOR BEDFORD STREET, WOBURN, BEDFORDSHIRE ( HO 107/5/ 39(2) F.16 P.27)

Examine enumeration books for clues about your ancestors’ lives and relationships

Address

The address is the name of the street only – no house numbers or names are recorded.

Name

The handwriting here is pretty clear, but often the entries are inscribed in pencil and can be poorly written or may have faded.

Age

Ages over 15 have all been rounded down to the nearest five, so William Haynes was actually aged 35-39.

Profession

Occupations are nearly all abbreviated in some way. Mary Manton was a ‘Dress M’ (dress maker) and Arabella Brown a ‘Dress M Ap’ (dress maker’s apprentice). Mary Cook was a ‘FS’ (female servant) and John Dell was ‘Ind’ (of independent means). Charles Pelling was a ‘Painter J’ (painter journeyman), that is a worker who was employed by someone else (not someone who travelled around to work).

Surname

Ann isn’t given a surname – possibly she was also a Manton or perhaps her other name wasn’t known.

Relationship

The automatic assumption would be that Ann is John Reddall’s wife, but she could be an unmarried sister or other relative.

Birthplace

Kive Rafel and Zutius Herschberg were both born in ‘F’ (foreign parts), whereas the other inhabitants stated they were either born in Bedfordshire ( Y) or elsewhere in England or Wales ( N).