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1921 Census

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HeyJudeB4Beatles

HeyJudeB4Beatles Report 1 Feb 2017 19:54

Found this website...http://www.1921census.org.uk/

Some interesting stuff...roll on 2022 :-) Obviously a FMP partner :-)

The 1921 Census

This site concentrates on the 1921 Census for England, Wales and Scotland which was taken on the night of Sunday 19th June 1921.

However there is information on other censuses which were taken the same year since an attempt was made to take a census as far as possible throughout the Empire, for example in Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and South Africa.

There is also more on the census that should have been taken but wasn't, the 1921 Census of Ireland.

If you are interested in other United Kingdom censuses from 1881 through to 1931 as well as the information gathered in 1939 for the National Identity Card, there are more details on our sister site 1911census.org.uk.

1921 Census for England, Wales and Scotland

It had been originally planned that the census for England, Wales and Scotland (and the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man as well) would be taken on the night of 24th April 1921 but was postponed by almost two months in the wake of the Black Friday strike by coal miners, railwaymen and transport workers. There was concern that the new date could mean that results would be affected by holiday-making but the date chosen did avoid the "big industrial holidays of the North" although it did clash with the Macclesfield industrial holiday. It turned out that the census did show very striking increases in population for certain seaside towns, for example a 64% increase in Blackpool and a 50% increase in Southend-on-Sea, although both towns had been growing and Southend-on-Sea had showed the highest growth between 1901 and 1911.

This holiday-making affect does mean that when genealogists finally get to see the details of their families in the 1921 Census, they may not be where they expected them to be and families may also be fragmented.

The 1921 Census showed Great Britain had a population of 42,767,530 in 1921, an increase of 4.7% over 1911, with 20,430,623 males and 22,336,907 females.

What information did the 1921 Census gather?

The questions asked for each person were:

name of person
relationship to head of household
age - this was now required as years and completed months, rather than just years as in previous censuses
sex
if age 15 or over, whether single, married or divorced
if under age 15, whether parents are living, "both alive", "father dead", "mother dead" or "both dead"
birthplace, county and town or parish (or country plus state, province or district for persons born abroad)
if born abroad, nationality
whether attending school or other educational establishment
trade
employer
place of work
number and ages of living children or stepchildren under 16
The enumerator who collected the form was also responsible for recording the number of "living rooms" at the premises.

New questions asked over the 1911 Census included whether a marriage has been dissolved by divorce - it was felt that as divorces had greatly increased in the years up to 1921, it was important to know exactly how many there were. In the event, 16682 people were said to be divorced on the returns, however there was considerable doubt post-census on the reliability of these numbers.

Another new question was where each person worked, in particular to obtain information about the travelling involved in getting to work.

For Wales and Monmouthshire, there was an extra question for each person (over three years) on whether they spoke English and Welsh, English only or Welsh only and for Scotland there were extra questions about whether each person (over three years) spoke Gaelic only and also whether they were entitled to benefits under the National Insurance (Health) Acts.

The so called "fertility" question introduced in 1911 about the number of years of the marriage and the number of children was dropped, the reason given was that the results from the previous census had not yet been tabulated. Also the question about blindness, deafness or dumbness were removed on the grounds that the parents had objected to giving this information about their children with the result that answers given in the previous census were unreliable.

Accessing the 1921 Census .... when will the 1921 Census be released?

The ruling by the Information Commissioner that resulted in the 1911 Census for England and Wales being opened early does not apply to the 1921 Census because, unlike the 1911 Census, the 1921 Census was conducted under the 1920 Census Act, which is still in force and which contains a statutory prohibition on disclosure.

The stated government position from the ONS is "its intention to release the entirety of the 1921 Census returns in 2022, in accordance with the non-statutory '100 year rule' which was adopted to reflect this undertaking of confidentiality".

Despite numerous protestations and challenges, the Government seems to be firmly sticking to the 100 year rule. One reason could of course be that if a census does go ahead in 2021 then there would have to be strong promises of confidentiality and that would not sit easily alongside the government suddenly releasing the 1921 census early when the promise was made at the time that the information on individuals would never be made public.

What are the alternatives while I wait for the 1921 Census to be released?

The first of these are Electoral Registers or Electoral Rolls. By 1921 all men in the United Kingdom over 21 and many women over 30 had the right to vote and their names appear in the electoral registers (all women over 21 gained the right to vote in 1928 but it was not until 1971 that the age was lowered to 18).


HeyJudeB4Beatles

HeyJudeB4Beatles Report 1 Feb 2017 19:56

Five years to wait to try and answer two of my perennial threads!!!!!!

Jude

Chris Ho :)

Chris Ho :) Report 1 Feb 2017 20:13

Oerr Jude, don't count on my eyeballs for 5 years time, lol, (or me brain for that matter, especially with those Welsh places!)

And of course will we still be here GR wise that is!...

Chris :)

HeyJudeB4Beatles

HeyJudeB4Beatles Report 1 Feb 2017 20:23

Well Chris let's look at at it cup half full rather than half empty eh????

Thanks to the 2011 pension thingy I have to work until I am 66...which takes me beyond 2022....just ;-)

If GR goes by the wayside we will have to make our own private club lol!

I really can't wait until it is released as I hope it will answer my queries about Winifred Florence May Ellis and Eva Bevan/Charles David Llewellyn. WE have made such discoveries about these and Martha Jane since I originally posted the two threads; it is unbelievable!

And think..if you are as old as me, the eyetests will be free by then (for me later this year) lol!

Jude

Chris Ho :)

Chris Ho :) Report 2 Feb 2017 07:56

Will do me very utmost for you Jude, lol...(just don;t lose all that info in the meantime!).

And Welsh Newspapers might have added a bit more to help also!.

Chris :)

HeyJudeB4Beatles

HeyJudeB4Beatles Report 3 Feb 2017 18:10

Yes it might be prudent to make a copy of the threads methinks!

The newspaper articles coming online are great...look where we got with Martha Jane and her paramour :-)

I find it quite funny as I cannot really remember filling out census returns in 1991 and 2001 though I guess I must have! I do remember 2011 because I did mine and my parents on line. And I guess 1961,1971 and 1981 my dad did them (I was still living at home)

I have bitten the bullet and sent of for an Ancestry DNA pack....I think I am 12.5% Welsh, 25% Scots and 62.5% (help it's awful to say) English....let's see!

Jude

grannyfranny

grannyfranny Report 3 Feb 2017 22:35

I kept copies of our 2001 and 2011 returns. Not sure about our 1991. I was an enumerator that year, thought I'd do my bit for the future family historians by writing legibly. It wasn't many years before that that I was waiting with great anticipation for the 1881 to be available, I think it was 1882 or even 3.

Chris in Sussex

Chris in Sussex Report 4 Feb 2017 00:21

I was an Enumerator in 2011 and hope I have enough 'marbles' left to be one in 2021. That will keep my busy for a couple of months and keep my mind off the excitement of the 1921 release in 2022 :-D

Chris

Flip

Flip Report 5 Feb 2017 14:26

You still at this Jude? Can remember the Charles David Llewllen/Eva Bevan thread, but not the other one.

One day though .... although I hope the 1921 census doesn't take as long to appear as the will!!!!!

HeyJudeB4Beatles

HeyJudeB4Beatles Report 5 Feb 2017 17:22

Hi Flip...long time!

Yes, I'm still at it...the other thread was about my husband's grandmother who was shown as adopted in 1911....it's a long thread and has had many changes of title....and you really couldn't make it up!

Got somewhat further along with young Charles David last year...Chris Ho found some great newspaper articles about him...a real black sheep!

But the final pieces of each puzzle are still outstanding and I can only hope 1921 census may be the final key.....

Jude

Flip

Flip Report 6 Feb 2017 17:43

Hi Jude,

Too long I think. Still having internet problems, living in the middle of nowhere, so not sure what happened to the roll out of "super fast" broadband. We still have to use a satelite signal, so not much point in renewing subs when the signal keeps dropping out.

One day we'll manage to put Eva to bed (so to speak), but until then I'll keep looking. Did see Chris's finds on David, and like you say a real black sheep!

Keep going - hopefully I'll still be around when they release 1921 census to see the findings :-D