Durham Records Online: Census Info - understanding your results

Birthplaces in 1841: Y, N, and N(x)

In the 1841 census, birthplace was listed in one of several ways:

Y = born in County Durham
N = not born in County Durham, but born in England or Wales
N(S) = Scotland
N(I) = Ireland
N(F) = Foreign
sometimes the birthplace county/country is written out, as in "N (Scotland)"

In the 1841 census, we usually only record birthplace for people NOT born in County Durham. Sometimes we include the "Y" for clarity, as in cases where most of a family was "N" but one person was "Y". You may assume any person with no birthplace listed was recorded as "Y", born in County Durham..

Birthplaces in 1851 or later: We have corrected various birthplace name spellings to make them more recognizable. For example, we change "Pensher" and "Painshaw" to "Penshaw". If we're not sure if a name is an alternative spelling vs. a separate place, we don't change it; we put our guess at what it might be in square brackets next to the original spelling. Also, we have added birth counties for some obvious birthplaces that were originally missing counties. For example, the enumerator often wrote simply "Newcastle upon Tyne" or "Berwick on Tweed", with no county shown because to him, it was obvious which county they were in. For cases like this, we have added "Northumberland" to the county column for search purposes.

NB or Note - Some census entries contain extra notes from our transcribers, including notes on the history of a place or person. Such notes are in square brackets and start with NB or Note.

[] or / (slash) in names - Names in square brackets (with multiple names separated by slashes) denote alternative spellings of a common name, or, if a name was illegible, our other "best guesses" at what the name was. The first name in the string is the name that appeared in the record, or our best guess at it. For example: Randyll [Randall] means the person was recorded as Randyll, but Randall is a more common spelling of this name, which we include here so it will be picked up by the search engine when you type "Randall". An entry like Primp [Pump/Pamp] means it looks like Primp, but may be Pump or Pamp.

Blank fields: If there is no occupation listed, the Occupation column was blank in the census. If there is no marital status listed, the person was listed as unmarried OR the field was blank, which many enumerators used to mean "unmarried". Sometimes we include the word "unmarried" for clarity. If a relationship or birthplace or age was blank in the census, we show that with [relationship blank], [age blank], or [birthplace blank]. You will also see [surname blank] or [given name blank] for those cases where a name was blank.

do or ditto - Censustakers used this to mean "same as above". They used it often for surnames and birthplaces. To facilitate searching, we have replaced "do" in the surname field with the surname directly above, and likewise have replaced "do" in the birthplace column with the birthplace listed directly above. We realise that enumerators made errors and sometimes wrote "do" for a birthplace or surname in error, and we are compounding that error by stating the birthplace or surname to be a specific name, but this was necessary to provide the ability to search on surnames and birthplaces.

A note about addresses: In the earlier censuses, most houses did not have numbers. Any number shown is typically not an address but an enumerator's number. For example, 4 California Row was not necessarily #4, California Row, but rather the 4th house he visited on California Row.

Why are there errors in the census?: There were many opportunities for error in a census. First, the person answering the census questions was quite likely to be a child, as the child might be the only person in the house who could read and write. The child, however, did not necessarily know the correct answers or correctly understand the answer given to him or her orally by the parents or did not know how to spell the birthplaces they quoted to him. Next, did you know that the census images available to us today are actually transcriptions made by the enumerator from "schedules" filled out by somebody in the household? If the enumerator did not correctly read the schedule filled out by the householder, another error develops. Also, when the enumerator was copying from the schedules to his enumerator's book, he might skip a line and miss somebody. (We suggest you visit BritishGenealogy.com, which provides an excellent description of how the census was taken, why the census images available today are actually transcriptions, and how to reference a piece/folio.) Lastly, of course, we are offering transcriptions, and if we could not read the enumerator's handwriting because it was poor, the ink had faded, or the page had been damaged, then we may also introduce errors. For all these reasons it is important to compare the results of a census to all other available records for continuity.

Sample Transcriptions

These are samples of the type of information you get back when purchasing a census entry from Durham Records Online.

Dalton-le-Dale - 1841 Census.
Hugh Jakes or Jacques, 25, Joiner
Ann Jakes or Jacques, 25, Not born in County Durham [Scotland]
Edward Jakes or Jacques, 2
George Jakes or Jacques, 3 days
Ann Ibbetson or Ibbertson, 15, Female Servant

Aside from Ann Jakes, the rest of the family was born in County Durham.

Dalton-le-Dale Village - 1851 Census -Times Inn
Jane Randyll [Randall], Head, widow, 45, Publican, Stanhope
Sarah Ann R, daughter, 22, Stockton
Catherine R, daughter, 19, Stockton
Isabella R, daughter,16, Stockton

In the 1851 example, the name [Randall] in square brackets represents a more common spelling of the name. We insert this so our search engine will turn up odd spellings of common names i.e. if you search for Randall, you will also get any entries for Randyll, Randell, etc. that list Randall as an alternative spelling. All of our insertions are marked in square brackets so you can distinguish them from the original census information.

1861 Census - Tudhoe, Tudhoe Ironworks - 12 High Row
Joseph Wanless, Head of Household, Married, 27, Ironworks Stocktaker, Chester-le-Street
Mary Wanless, Wife, Married, 23, Hylton
Joseph W. Wanless, Son, 4, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Elizabeth A. Wanless, Daughter, 1, Spennymoor
Ann Robbins [Robinson/Dobbins (?)], Sister-in-law, 20, Hylton
John Dunn, Lodger, 24, Ironworks Labourer, Houghton-le-Spring
Patrick Reed, Lodger, 19, Ironworks Labourer, Carlisle, Cumberland

In this 1861 census example, the surname of the sister-in-law was unclear, so we have included several possibilities in brackets. The earlier the census, the more varied the spelling of names was, and coupled with unclear handwriting and fading over time, reading a name today can be difficult.

Note that the term "in-law" could mean "step" in today's language, and people raising their grandchildren might call them their children. Also, such terms might relative to the person answering the questions rather than to the head-of-household - for example, a wife might say her husband's brother was a brother-in-law, even though the census was supposed to record the relationship to the head-of-household. To resolve such questions, pay attention to relative ages and the likelihood that a person is related as stated, and get birth certificates to verify parentage rather than relying just on the census.

Birthplaces in the 1851 and later censuses should be assumed to be in County Durham unless otherwise specified, but there are a few exceptions. Certain major cities, such as Newcastle-upon-Tyne or London, were often recorded without a county specified. In most cases, we have left these alone; in some censuses we have added "Northumberland" to birthplaces we know to be in Northumberland.

Problems with Specific Censuses

Many old censuses were especially difficult to read due to poor handwriting or extreme fading, and parts are even missing. Here is a list of areas we have encountered that were particularly unreadable, so treat these transcriptions with caution - in many of these cases, we were just guessing (and trying to compare to other census years):

1841: Most of Preston-le-Skerne had faded before it was microfilmed, so only a few fragments were filmed & readable.
- Winlaton: In HO107/302/7, pages 13 and 14 (between folios 9 and 10) were skipped when the folio numbers were stamped on the pages and were not filmed by the PRO. We transcribed the missing 50 people from the original census book at the PRO and gave these entries the folio number of the prior folio, which was 9.
1851: East Rainton (very faded), Witton Gilbert & Sacriston (about 27 sheets in Sacriston unreadable, with many more very faded and difficult to read on either positive or negative microfilm; 5 sheets of Edmondsley too faint to read), 20+ folios of Eighton Banks (very faint), Hetton-le-Hole with Easington Lane (very faint), town of Chester-le-Street (very faded). In Wingate Colliery and Little Lumley, the enumerator listed only birth counties, not towns.
1861: Easington, Chester-le-Street Township (sheets were apparently stuck together & then damaged when separated & photographed; what remains has difficult handwriting), Middridge Grange is missing, last 3 sheets of East Thickley are missing, part of Usworth Colliery Village is very faded (High Row, New Row, Nailors Shops, Waggon Row), part of Biddick Row in North Biddick village was blurred. The entire census of Hedleyhope (Lanchester district) and the last 2 pages of Cornsay are missing from the PRO, so unavailable to us. Last page of Tanfield is torn away, so 23 people are missing and 20 have incomplete information (no birthplaces, and some have no ages or occupations).
1881: The last four sheets for Bishop Middleham were very badly damaged and torn before they were microfilmed. All that survives are four half sheets which do not match up with each other. We have extracted what little info we could.
1891: Dalton-le-Dale: The enumerator tallied his figures by crossing through the ages of the people entered, so their ages are difficult to read and in some cases it has been necessary to make a guess. This is also true in Cold Hesledon, to an even worse degree.
1841-1891: Cox Green was included in the enumeration of West Herrington, but we have called it part of Penshaw because it is technically part of Penshaw as far as we know.

Piece, Folio, and Page References

The bulk of our older data does not contain the PRO references (the piece, folio, and page number that the census entry is found on). We apologize for that, but when these were transcribed over the past 10 years, they were for personal use and it was not expected that we would want to go back and recheck things. Starting in about June 2004, all new transcriptions include the piece and folio numbers and sometimes the page number, to better enable our customers to find the actual census entry for their own perusal. Also, the entire 1901 census of Easington district does contain PRO references.

Understanding Your Census Results

Birthplaces in 1841: Y, N, and N(x)

Sample Transcriptions

Problems with Specific Censuses

Piece, Folio, and Page References