The 1881 census for was taken on the night of 3 April 1881.

Census forms were given to all households and the form was usually completed by the Head of the household. The next day, the completed forms were collected by the local enumerator who copied the details into enumerators’ books.

The form was to have details of all persons who spent the night in the household.  You may therefore find that some of persons you expected to be there are not, some could have been working away from home, visiting relatives, in hospital, or even in Prison!  The rule is that the person should be listed in whatever place they were on census night.

Like all compiled records, the census details relies upon the legibility of the original records. In some cases, the original census details were wrong, but the compilers did not correct them. The interpretation of the data is left up to you.  As with all transcribed data, these are finding aids only and where a you find a record of interest you should confirm the details against the original record wherever possible. 

Once all of the details were copied in the into enumerators’ books, the original forms were destroyed, therefore we have to rely on the accuracy of transcription by the enumerator. If the person who was to complete the form was illiterate, and many were, the enumerator completed the form on the persons behalf. This was done phonetically, the enumerated entered the details as he heard them, it is for this reason that you may find spelling mistakes, i.e. Whyte may have been entered as "White", "Parsons" as "Parson" etc;

Therefore if a person cannot be found you must put your thinking cap on and and try to guess what variation on the name may have been used.

Enumerators also had a tendency to enter the address of the property as they knew it, 10 Green Street could have been entered as the "Butchers Shop", or all addresses may just have been entered as "High St".

Many people also entered their place of birth as their earliest recollection of where they lived, which may not have been their actual place of birth.

Ages can also be incorrect, many children's ages were exaggerated due to various Factory Acts. Depending on the actual census date and the persons birth date, the calculation of a persons age can be out by one year.

Remember that all transcribed data must be used as a finding aid only, the proof of a persons age, birth place etc; can only be proved by a Civil Registration Certificate.

Also bear in mind that many people were missed from all censuses for a variety of reasons:

1. They may not have completed the return.

2. The return may not have been collected by the enumerator.

3. The enumerator may have made a mistake when he was copying the details from the return into his book

4. The pages in the enumerators book may have been illegible. There is nothing that can be done about it. The only person to whom one can complain is the enumerator who wrote in the original book using poor quality (or even watered down!) ink. Unfortunately, that person is long since dead !

5. The pages in the enumerators book may have been damaged.

6. Your ancestor may not have been in the UK at the time of the census, or may have been in the military abroad, or a fisherman at sea.

7. Your ancestor may have been illiterate (up to 50% were prior to early 1900's). The enumerator would have then entered the details phonetically, as he heard the householders answers to his questions. Therefore, try saying the name you are researching to yourself - Could White be Wight, Whyte, Weight ?

8. Many people put down their earliest recollection of where they lived as the place they were born, which may not have been correct. Around 20 of my ancestors put their place of birth as Surrey or London, when in fact they were born in Ireland, but moved to England as babies or young children.

9. You may therefore find you ancestors missing from one census, but turning up in another.