• Overview of the England and Wales Censuses
• Census Organisation - Finding Your Way Round a Censuses
• The 1851 STEER Project
• How the Censuses are being Transcribed for the STEER Project
• Problems with the Censuses
• What Surnames are Included in the STEER Project
• Current Progress
• Where You Can Help
• Viewing the Transcriptions by Name or County
• Details Recorded in Each Census - 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891, 1901
• Tables of Abbreviations
• Marital Condition (Status)
• Relations to Head of Household

Overview of the England and Wales Censuses

There were national censuses in England and Wales from 1801 but until 1841 they were enumerated by the church or overseers of the poor with only statistical summaries being returned. Some of these earlier censuses survive in local records offices but most haven't, however, what they recorded was limited, only the head of the house was likely to be named with the other occupants just given as a number perhaps as males of females and maybe type of employment.

The 1841 census was different because it was adminstered using the England and Wales Registration Districts and everyone living in each house was to be named, there was a legal requirement to disclose the information and people were fined for not doing so. Importantly for family historians the 1841 census records have almost entirely survived. The disadvantages of the 1841 census are that relationships to the head of the house are not recorded, places of birth are given only as 'born within the county' or not (or Scotland, Ireland or foreign parts) and adult ages are rounded down to the nearest five years. Later censuses, then taken every ten years, included these items missing in 1841. The censuses from 1841 to 1901 have been made available to the public, usually on microfilm or microfiche at records offices and increasingly on CD-ROM.

Censuses continued to be taken every ten years to the present day, except for 1941 during World War II; the 1931 census was destroyed in a bombing raid during this war. Under the 'hundred years rule' these census records remain closed and are not available to the general public.

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Census Organisation - Finding Your Way Round the Censuses

Each page in a census has a unique three-piece reference: Year Ref, Piece and Folio. 1841 can be slightly different with a book and page reference.

The year references are:

1841
1851
1861
1871
1881
1891
1901

HO 107 (Home Office)
HO 107
RG 9 (Registrar General)
RG 10
RG 11
RG 12
RG 13

1841 and 1851 have different Piece numbers

Censuses were administered and recorded using the England and Wales Registration Districts, Each district contained sub-districts and was organised into pieces, identified by a number, a registration district would be comprised of a number of pieces. The size and geographical area covered by a piece varied mostly as to whether the area was rural or urban. Registration District boundaries, and hence pieces, do necessarily follow county boundaries, although it is useful to think in terms of counties.

A piece would typically contain hundreds of folios. A folio is a numbered leaf with a facing and reverse side, identified with a suffixed a or b respectively. If a folio contains more than one household of interest then the reference will be further suffixed with a dash followed by a number, e.g. Folio 128a-1. The Folios listed below are those that contain people called Steer, or have variant spellings of the surname, or are family relatives.

These folios were identified from published census surname indexes and any omissions or mis-transcribed surnames in these indexes will mean that the entries are missing from the transcriptions here.

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The 1851 STEER Project

The importance of the 1851 census is that it is the earliest to show individuals, their family relationships and parishes of birth, also the records have for the much greater part survived, consequently the 1851 census has been mostly surnamed indexed. Although for a few areas the 1851 census has not survived or is legible it is worth transcribing all the occurrences of the Steer and variant names, this will be the earliest and fullest snapshot of Steers across England and Wales.

The project will greatly assist those researching their own families and also provide data for studying the distribution of the Steer name.

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How the Censuses are being Transcribed for the STEER Project

Steer entries are being identified by using the published surname indexes, which cover most of the 1851 census. Where surname indexes are not available a view will be taken as to whether searching through the returns for these areas will be worthwhile. It first has to be established which areas have not been indexed.

Households in the census containing anyone with the Steer, or variant, surname are initially transcribed from microfilms at the Family Records Centre (FRC) in London. A Photostat copy is also made of the page and a comment about the legibility of the entry is added to the transcription. It will be important to know the quality of an image should there be any future questions relating to the people or household. Images will only be available on this web site by request and then only for a short period, this measure is purely to save time and computer resources. Images can be requested by clicking the 'tick' on the census transcriptions, for those doing this please indicate what you know about the individuals or family and why the image maybe important. The images are Photostat copies and scanning them may further reduce quality.

The initial transcriptions are entered into a computer text file. The text file is read by a bespoke computer program into a database from which another program creates the web pages. The web pages were checked against the Photostat images.

First names, surnames and occupations in the transcriptions will always appear unaltered. However, for the purposes of the project, such as production of distribution maps and reconciliation with other records, other items have been standardised. Standardisation does not alter key facts, but does allow comparison with other files. Examples of standardised items are, replacing an age of '10 mths' with '10m', changing variations of 'daughter' (dau, daug, daur etc.), ensuring that places of birth are county followed by parish and standardising the various county abbreviations used in the censuses, however, parish names are presented as originally written.

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Problems with the Censuses

There are a number of problems associated with the censuses.

• Pieces that have not survived, were not recorded or are illegible present insurmountable problems. Legibility is affected by damage to the folios, watering down the ink, use of pencil (1841) and poor or rushed handwriting.
• Surname indexes will contain omissions or wrong references and the corresponding entries will be missing from the Steer project.
• Surname indexes have generally been compiled relatively recently by county family history societies. Registration districts did not always follow county borders so there is a potential for borderland parishes to have been missed. Some indexes have been compiled by parish and the entire census piece may not have been considered. It will take some effort to establish whether all English and Welsh parishes have been accounted for.
• Enumerator's marks were made when extracting statistics from the census records. These marks score through census details particularly ages which decreases legibility.
• Census returns were completed by the head of the household and there will be different degrees of diligence in giving people's ages and places of birth particularly when an individual is not a close family member.
• Peoples' ages were often given incorrectly either deliberately or not. Ages were sometimes expressed not as 'years' (as currently used) but year, e.g. a person is in their fiftieth year but they are 49 years old. Married females who were older than their husbands often gave a younger age.
• The birthplaces of people who had moved far away could be given as the place that they thought the enumerator would most likely know; a nearby large town could replace a rural parish. An enumerator may not know a given parish and write it phonetically or even ignore it. In these cases sometimes only the county of birth would be given.
• The National Archives project to provide on-line access to the 1901 census in England and Wales has a number of problems associated with it. Please see the 1901 entry on the Projects Page

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What Surnames are Included

The census transcriptions currently contain the index entries for these variant spellings of the Steer name. Other names will be added when necessary.

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Current Progress

This web site currently features 1851 census entries for registration districts in Cornwall, Lincolnshire and Surrey which have been surname indexed (possibly all) and some small parts of Middlessex and Sussex. Transcribing is not a difficult task, the process of reading the files into the database and creating the web pages is rapid, however, checking the results takes time.

Transcriptions of the 1851 census for the rest of the England and Wales are expected to be published at a rate of about one county per month but probably a little quicker as some counties will be easy where there are few if any Steers. However, Kent, Sussex, Devon & some northern counties can each be expected to take longer.

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Where You Can Help

The aim is to identify the steer individuals and families found in the 1851 census. Each census household entry has a tick and if you recognise anyone in the household then clicking the tick will open an email which can be used to contribute what you know. You can also use the tick to enquire about the people, there is much more information in the database than published on this web site. The census reference is automatically entered into the email message, this will clearly identify the household in which you are interested.

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Viewing the Transcriptions by Name or County

For the purposes of the surname indexes on this site all Steers are listed in first name order irrespective of any variations in the spelling of the surname. As spelling was not then standardised a persons name could be recorded differently during their lives, it is easier to search for someone using a list of all the first names than having to look through each surname variant separately. There are separate indexes for all other surnames found in the transcriptions.

Each county index lists the transcriptions by piece and folio, which facilitates the searching of an area. Registration districts did not always follow county boundaries and further assistance will be provided in future for searches near to county borders.

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1841 Census - Taken on the Night of Sunday 7th June

• PLACE
  .
• HOUSES (in two columns)
  Uninhabited or Building
  Inhabited
  .
• NAMES of each Person who abode therein the preceding Night.
  .
• AGE and SEX (in two columns)
  Males
  Females
  .
• PROFESSION, TRADE, EMPLOYMENT, or of INDEPENDENT MEANS
  .
• Where Born (in two columns)
  Whether Born in same County
  Whether Born in Scotland, Ireland, or Foreign Parts
  .

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1851 Census - Taken on the Night of Sunday 30th March

• Parish or Township of ______, Ecclesiastical District of ______, City or Borough of ______, Town of ______, Village of ______
  The place names were entered where appropriate and redundant headings were scored through, e.g. Town of

• Number of Householder's Schedule (Not present on Institutional Form)
  Administrative and this column has not been transcribed.
• Name of Street, Place or Road, and Name or No. of House
  House identification, especially in rural areas, was often vaguer than implied by this heading.
• Name and Surname of each Person who abode in the house, on the Night of the 30^th March 1851
  The institutional form has the word Institution instead of house.
• Relation to Head of Family (Household form)
  Position in the Institution (Institutional form)
  Shown in the transcriptions as Relation in both cases. Click here for abbreviations used in the transcriptions
• Condition
  Marital status, typically an abbreviated form of Married, Unmarried or Widow(er). The condition of children under twelve was often left blank. Click here for abbreviations used in the transcriptions
• Age of Males
  Ages of Females
  In the census transcriptions these two columns are presented as Sex (M or F) and Age. Ages are in years unless suffixed by m (moths) or w (weeks). See also Problems with the Censuses.
• Rank, Profession, or Occupation
  Shown in the transcriptions as Occupation.
• Where Born
  Shown in the transcriptions as Birthplace and standardised as county followed by parish, there was no standard adhered to in the census. Counties were often abbreviated. See also Problems with the Censuses.
• Whether Blind, or Deaf-and-Dumb
  Appears in the transcriptions in the Comments column. Comments added during the making of the transcriptions are placed in parentheses.

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1861 Census - Taken on the Night of Sunday 7th April

• The undermentioned Houses are situate within the Boundaries of the Parish [or Township] of ______, City or Municipal Borough of ______, Municipal Ward of ______, Parliamentary Borough of ______, Town of ______, Hamlet or Tything, &c, of ______, Ecclesiastical District of ______
  The place names were entered where appropriate and redundant headings were scored through, e.g. Town of

• Col 1
  No. of Schedule
  Administrative and this column has not been transcribed.
• Col 2
  Road, Street, &c., and No. or Name of House
• Cols 3 & 4
  Relate to inhabited and uninhabited houses, these have not been transcribed.
• Col 5
  Name and Surname of each Person
• Col 6
  Relation to Head of Family
  Shown in the transcriptions as Relation. Click here for abbreviations used in the transcriptions
• Col 7
  Condition
  Marital status, typically an abbreviated form of Married, Widow(er). Click here for abbreviations used in the transcriptions
• Col 8 & 9
  Age of
  Males
  Females
  There were separate age columns for males and females but have been transcribed and presented in two columns: Sex (M or F) and Age. Ages are in years unless suffixed by m (moths) or w (weeks). See also Problems with the Censuses.
• Col 10
  Rank, Profession, or Occupation
  Shown in the transcriptions as Occupation.
• Col 11
  Where Born
  Shown in the transcriptions as Birthplace and standardised as county followed by parish, there was no standard adhered to in the census. Counties were often abbreviated. See also Problems with the Censuses.
• Col 12
  Whether Blind, or Deaf-and-Dumb
  Appears in the transcriptions in the Comments column. Comments added during the making of the transcriptions are placed in parentheses.

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1871 Census - Taken on the Night of Sunday 2nd April

• The undermentioned Houses are situate within the Boundaries of the Civil Parish [or Township] of ______, City or Municipal Borough of ______, Municipal Ward of ______, Parliamentary Borough of ______, Town of ______, Village or Hamlet, &c, of ______, Local Board, or [Improvement Commissioners District] of ______, Ecclesiastical District of ______
  The place names were entered where appropriate and redundant headings were scored through, e.g. Town of

• Col 1
  No. of Schedule
  Administrative and this column has not been transcribed.
• Col 2
  ROAD, STREET, &c., and No. or NAME of HOUSE
• Cols 3 & 4
  Relate to inhabited and uninhabited houses, these have not been transcribed.
• Col 5
  NAME and Surname of each Person
• Col 6
  RELATION to Head of Family
  Shown in the transcriptions as Relation. Click here for abbreviations used in the transcriptions
• Col 7
  CONDITION
  Marital status, typically an abbreviated form of Married, Widow(er). Click here for abbreviations used in the transcriptions
• Col 8 & 9
  AGE of
  Males
  Females
  There were separate age columns for males and females but have been transcribed and presented in two columns: Sex (M or F) and Age. Ages are in years unless suffixed by m (moths) or w (weeks). See also Problems with the Censuses.
• Col 10
  Rank, Profession, or OCCUPATION
  Shown in the transcriptions as Occupation.
• Col 11
  WHERE BORN
  Shown in the transcriptions as Birthplace and standardised as county followed by parish, there was no standard adhered to in the census. Counties were often abbreviated. See also Problems with the Censuses.
• Col 12
  (1) Deaf-and-Dumb (2) Blind (3) Imbecile or Idiot (4) Lunatic
  Appears in the transcriptions in the Comments column. Comments added during the making of the transcriptions are placed in parentheses.

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1881 Census - Taken on the Night of Sunday 3rd April

• The undermentioned Houses are situate within the Boundaries of the Civil Parish [or Township] of ______, City or Municipal Borough of ______, Municipal Ward of ______, Parliamentary Borough of ______, Town or Village or Hamlet of ______, Urban Sanitary District of ______, Rural Sanitary District of ______, Ecclesiastical Parish or District of ______
  The place names were entered where appropriate and redundant headings were scored through, e.g. Town or Village or Hamlet of

• Col 1
  No. of Schedule
  Administrative and this column has not been transcribed.
• Col 2
  ROAD, STREET, &c., and No. or NAME of HOUSE
• Cols 3 & 4
  Relate to inhabited and uninhabited houses, these have not been transcribed.
• Col 5
  NAME and Surname of each Person
• Col 6
  RELATION to Head of Family
  Shown in the transcriptions as Relation. Click here for abbreviations used in the transcriptions
• Col 7
  CONDITION as to Marriage
  Marital status, typically an abbreviated form of Married, Widow(er). S for Single was used instead of Unmarried. Click here for abbreviations used in the transcriptions
• Col 8 & 9
  AGE last Birthday of
  Males
  Females
  There were separate age columns for males and females but have been transcribed and presented in two columns: Sex (M or F) and Age. Ages are in years unless suffixed by m (moths) or w (weeks). See also Problems with the Censuses.
• Col 10
  Rank, Profession, or OCCUPATION
  Shown in the transcriptions as Occupation.
• Col 11
  WHERE BORN
  Shown in the transcriptions as Birthplace and standardised as county followed by parish, there was no standard adhered to in the census. Counties were often abbreviated. See also Problems with the Censuses.
• Col 12
  (1) Deaf-and-Dumb (2) Blind (3) Imbecile or Idiot (4) Lunatic
  Appears in the transcriptions in the Comments column. Comments added during the making of the transcriptions are placed in parentheses.

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1891 Census - Taken on the Night of Sunday 5th April

• Administrative County of ______, Civil Parish of ______, Municipal Borough of ______, Municipal Ward of ______, Urban Sanitary District of ______, Town or Village or Hamlet of ______, Rural Sanitary District of ______, Parliamentary Borough or Division of ______, Ecclesiastical Parish or District of ______
  The place names were entered where appropriate and redundant headings were scored through, e.g. Town or Village or Hamlet of

• Col 1
  No. of Schedule
  Administrative and this column has not been transcribed.
• Col 2
  ROAD, STREET, &c, and No. or NAME of HOUSE
• Cols 3,4 & 5
  Relate to inhabited and uninhabited houses and number of inhabited rooms, these have not been transcribed.
• Col 6
  NAME and Surname of each Person
• Col 7
  RELATION to Head of Family
  Shown in the transcriptions as Relation. Click here for abbreviations used in the transcriptions
• Col 8
  CONDITION as to Marriage
  Marital status, typically an abbreviated form of Married, Widow(er). S for Single was used instead of Unmarried. Click here for abbreviations used in the transcriptions
• Col 9 & 10
  AGE last Birthday of
  Males
  Females
  There were separate age columns for males and females but have been transcribed and presented in two columns: Sex (M or F) and Age. Ages are in years unless suffixed by m (moths) or w (weeks). See also Problems with the Censuses.
• Col 11
  PROFESSION or OCCUPATION
  Shown in the transcriptions as Occupation.
• Cols 12, 13 & 14
  Employer
  Employed
  Neither Employer of Employed
  These three columns have not been transcribed.
• Col 15
  WHERE BORN
  Shown in the transcriptions as Birthplace and standardised as county followed by parish, there was no standard adhered to in the census. Counties were often abbreviated. See also Problems with the Censuses.
• Col 16
  If (1) Deaf-and-Dumb (2) Blind (3) Lunatic, Imbecile or Idiot
  Appears in the transcriptions in the Comments column. Comments added during the making of the transcriptions are placed in parentheses.

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1901 Census - Taken on the Night of Sunday 31st March

• Administrative County of ______, Civil Parish of ______, Ecclesiastical Parish of ______, County Borough, Municipal Borough or Urban District of ______, Ward of Municipal Borough or of Urban District of ______, Rural District of ______, Parliamentary Borough or Division of ______, Town or Village or Hamlet of ______,
  The place names were entered where appropriate and redundant headings were scored through, e.g. Town or Village or Hamlet of

• Col 1
  No. of Schedule
  Administrative and this column has not been transcribed.
• Col 2
  ROAD, STREET, &c, and No. or NAME of HOUSE
• Cols 3,4, 5, 6 & 7
  Relate to inhabited and uninhabited houses and number of inhabited rooms, these have not been transcribed.
• Col 8
  Name and Surname of each Person
• Col 9
  RELATION to Head of Family
  Shown in the transcriptions as Relation. Click here for abbreviations used in the transcriptions
• Col 10
  CONDITION as to Marriage
  Marital status, typically an abbreviated form of Married, Widow(er). S for Single was used instead of Unmarried. Click here for abbreviations used in the transcriptions
• Col 11 & 12
  AGE last Birthday of
  Males
  Females
  There were separate age columns for males and females but have been transcribed and presented in two columns: Sex (M or F) and Age. Ages are in years unless suffixed by m (moths) or w (weeks). See also Problems with the Censuses.
• Col 13
  PROFESSION or OCCUPATION
  Shown in the transcriptions as Occupation.
• Cols 14 & 15
  Employer, Worker or Own account
  If Working at Home
  Neither column has been transcribed.
• Col 16
  WHERE BORN
  Shown in the transcriptions as Birthplace and standardised as county followed by parish, there was no standard adhered to in the census. Counties were often abbreviated. See also Problems with the Censuses.
• Col 17
  If (1) Deaf-and-Dumb (2) Blind (3) Lunatic (4) Imbecile, feeble-minded
  Appears in the transcriptions in the Comments column. Comments added during the making of the transcriptions are placed in parentheses.

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The was no standard applied when recording an individual's relationship to the head of the household or their marital status, for example, Daughter could be written as Dau, Daur or Daug and Married could be M, Mar or Marr. For the Steer project it is necessary to standardise these relationships and conditions, and also to abbreviate them to shorten the display of the entries.

Marital Conditions

Standardised Abbreviation

Marital Condition

-

Not known or not specified

Mar

Married

Un

Unmarried

Wid

Widow

Relationships to the Head of Household

Standardised Abbreviation

Relationship to Head of House

-

Not known or not specified

Appr

Apprentice

B-in-law

Brother-in-Law

Brother

Brother

Cousin

Cousin

D-in-law

Daughter-in-Law

Daug

Daughter

F-in-law

Father-in-Law

Father

Father

G Daug

Grand Daughter

G Son

Grand Son

Head

Head

Hse Kpr

House Keeper

Hse Maid

House Maid

Journ

Journeyman

Lodg

Lodger

Lodg daug

Lodgers Daughter

Lodg Son

Lodgers Son

Lodg Wife

Lodgers Wife

M-in-law

Mother-in-Law

Mother

Mother

Niece

Niece

Pauper

Pauper

Relation

Relation

Scholar

Scholar

Serv

Servant

Sis-in-law

Sister-in-Law

Son-in-law

Son-in-Law

Sons wife

Sons Wife

Step-son

Step Son

Visit

Visitor

Wife

Wife

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