PRE-1841 CENSUSES & POPULATION LISTINGS IN THE BRITISH ISLES, 6TH EDN

Colin R Chapman Lochin Publishing, 84 pages, £4.99

For anyone keen to venture beyond the first modern census of 1841, Pre-1841 Censuses & Population Listings in the British Isles is an invaluable history of early censuses in the British Isles and a guide to where they can be found.

For this sixth edition Colin Chapman has updated the text and data, which now includes the vast amount of new material sent to him by researchers in the field.

An appendix lists surviving censuses with individuals’ names going back in some cases to the 14th century, such as surviving poll-tax lists of 1379. A list of 51,000 names survives from Stafford in 1532, arranged in family groups.

Another appendix offers a list of places where the local census data from the national censuses carried out between 1801 and 1831 still exists. There is a bonus for some researchers: an asterisk beside the place name indicates that all of the people in that place were named, often with ages. This means that if you have traced an ancestor back to, say, Calborne in Hampshire, then thanks to this book you know the local archive will have the names and ages of the family in 1803.

All family historians owe a debt of gratitude to Chapman, a prolific writer on genealogical subjects, of which this is my favourite.