Census Records.

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One of the earliest and well known Census recorded was in 1086 and known as the Domesday Book. The first census was even further back and a record of this can be found in the Bible. It mentions a count by the Israelites of all males over the age of twenty to assess their fighting strength.

In 1753 a bill was put to Parliament to adopt a census but this never came to fruition and was thrown out by the House of Lords. By 1800 the census bill was accepted unopposed and paved the way for the first census which was enummerated in 1801. From this time onward the census returns were made every ten years, the most recent census to be made available to genealogists is that of 1901. This one hundred year closure is there to protect the privacy of those who entered what is considerd by Government bodies to be confidential information.

The early census from 1801 to 1841 provided very little use to genealogists as compared to the present census returns. From 1851 the information included, census place, street address (in some cases), name and surname of those at address, relation to the head of the family, condition (whether single, married, widowed), ages, rank or profession, where born (including village and Parish) and whether Welsh speaking or not. In the 1990’s The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints produced the first census on C D Rom, the 1881 census of Britain. For those that have access to a computer the 1881 census has proved a jewel in the crown of census returns. For others there are the microfilm and microfiche versions, offering the same amount of information but with less manoeuvrability. Local Family History societies throughout the UK have transcribed many of the census returns between 1841 and 1891 and can be purchased from the relevant Counties.

Those Census transcribed by E.G.G.R.A for the Eastern Valley of Monmouthshire are the, 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891 and 1901. We also hold microfiche copies of the latter named census.