Books & Digital Picks
This month’s family history inspiration
This short book describes the background to the British censuses that have generally been conducted every 10 years, starting in 1801. The earliest ones were little more than headcounts, and in fact it was not until 1841 that an attempt was made to identify every member of the population by name.
Simon Smith notes how certain sectors of the population have responded to the prospect of a census – sometimes with apprehension, ridicule or deceit. He also looks at selected themes revealed by analysis of returns over the years such as population expansion, changes in patterns of occupations, and the growth of urbanisation at the expense of rural communities.
The author does a good job of outlining how the questions asked in the census, and the methods of data collection, have evolved from 1841 to the 21st century. The illustrations are very
well chosen and add significantly to the educational value of the book and the pleasure in reading it. They include contemporary cartoons, photographs and art.
However, this book is not a practical guide to using censuses for family history research, so readers of this magazine may find it lacking the depth they require. It does not, for example, explain how to trace people who are difficult to locate in a census or
who appear to be missing. Errors in census returns, lost data and the people likely to be omitted are not discussed in detail. The exception is the tale of Emily Wilding Davison, a suffragette who hid in a cupboard in the Palace of Westminster to escape the 1911 census. The attempt failed because her landlady and a parliamentary official both entered her name on their returns so she actually appears twice!