Week 5 - In the Census

It's Week 5 of #52ancestors and the theme this week is 'In the Census'.  As a mathematician, I enjoy statistics so am going to give a couple of statistics behind my family in the census.

In England and Wales, censuses have been taken every ten years since 1841.  There are earlier ones but the records were not systematically kept and the level of detail collated was a lot lower.  All censuses up to 1911 have been made available to the public and scanned.

I have calculated how many direct line ancestors I have in each census:

1841 - 69 ancestors

Oldest ancestor William Hudson (5xgt grandfather on Leggatt line) aged 76 in Wingham, Kent; youngest Ann Harding (2xgt grandmother on Braybrook line) aged 2 in Broughton Gifford, Wiltshire

1851 - 71 ancestors

Oldest ancestor George Harding (4xgt grandfather on Braybrook line) aged 90 in Broughton Gifford, Wiltshire; youngest ancestor James Thomas Leggatt (2xgt grandfather) aged 1 in Lambeth, Surrey

1861 - 54 ancestors

Oldest ancestor Thomas Dixon (4xgt grandfather on the Benjamin line) aged 81 in Yate, Gloucestershire; youngest ancestor Caroline Lageu (2xgt grandmother) aged 1 in the Strand, London

1871 - 41 ancestors

Oldest ancestor Ann Dyer (nee Packer - 4xgt grandmother on Benjamin line) aged 83 in Iron Acton, Gloucestershire; youngest ancestor Caroline Lageu aged 11 in Charlton, London

1881 - 41 ancestors

Oldest ancestor George Harding (3xgt grandfather on Braybrook line) aged 73 in Broughton Gifford, Wiltshire; youngest ancestor James Leggatt (gt grandfather) aged 2 in Lewisham, Kent

1891 - 34 ancestors

Oldest ancestor Robert Tuffs (3xgt grandfather on Bennett line) aged 82 in Terrington St Clement, Norfolk; youngest ancestor Ethel Hudson Smith (2xgt grandmother on Leggatt line) aged 7 in Bermondsey, Surrey

1901 - 26 ancestors

Oldest ancestor Frederick William Keane Smith (3xgt grandfather on Leggatt line) aged 84 in Warblington, Hamphire; youngest ancestor Ethel Hudson Smith aged 17 in Bermondsey, Surrey

1911 - 21 ancestors

Oldest ancestor John Dixon (3xgt grandfather on Benjamin line) aged 91 in Yate, Gloucestershire; youngest ancestor still Ethel Hudson Smith now Leggatt aged 27 in Grove Park, Kent

There are only three ancestors who were actually alive to appear in all the censuses from 1841 to 1911.

The first is Ann Harding (1838-1915) who was my mother's, mother's, mother's mother.  She was born in 1838 in Broughton Gifford, Wiltshire.  She lived in Broughton Gifford (1841 & 1851), London (1861, 1871 & 1881) and   Peterborough, Northamptonshire (1891, 1901 & 1911).

The second is John Dixon (1820-1911) who was my mother's, father's, mother's, father's father.  He was born in about 1820 in Yate, Gloucestershire.  He lived in Yate for every one of the census returns.

The third is Ann Hurst (1822-1917) who was my father's, mother's, mother's, mother's adoptive mother.  She was born in 1822 in St Peters in Thanet, Kent. She lived in St Peters (1841), Bermondsey (1861 to 1901) and Margate (1911).  I have still not found her or her husband Alfred Strivens Hudson in the 1851 census.  There is always a mystery to solve in family history.