1911Census.org.uk

The 1881 Census

The 1881 Census was taken on the night of Sunday 3rd April 1881.

The following information was recorded in the schedules about each dwelling and person residing there on the night of the census:

• the address
• whether the dwelling was "inhabited" or "uninhabited or building"
• name and surname of each person residing at the dwelling on the night of the census
• relationship of each person to the head of the family
• each person's marital status ("condition as to marriage")
• age last birthday and sex
• rank, profession, or occupation
• where born, parish and county (or if born outside of England or Wales, just the country)
• whether they were "blind", or "deaf and dumb" or "imbecile or idiot" or "lunatic"

The information collected was the same as in 1871.

You can download a form produced by Ancestry showing the headings for the 1881 census by clicking here.

Accessing the 1881 Census

The full 1881 census for England, Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man can be viewed on microfilm at the Family Records Centre in Islington and many local record offices have reels for their areas.

The 1881 census for England, Scotland, Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man was fully transcribed in the 1980s by an army of volunteers and published by the Church of Latter Day Saints - LDS. Initially it was widely available on fiche or as a set of CDs sold at cost price but the transcription can now also be viewed (but minus the Scottish records) for free online at the LDS Family Search site.

The same transcriptions can also be searched for free at Ancestry. They have also linked it to scans of the original census index pages but these are only available to subscribers.

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