Introduction

The first generally useful census to be held in the UK was in 1841 and it was repeated at 10 years intervals (with the exception of 1941). The volume and accuracy of the recorded data has tended to increase but the essence has remained the same - to try and identify every single person and their location at census time. This objective was achieved by the completion of an enumeration return for predefined Enumeration districts. Needless to say there were exceptions from the norm created mainly by non-domestic habitations (typical examples include vessels, military units and workhouses). 

To a large extent any particular return is only as good as the Enumerator employed to complete the documentation - some took great care and wrote legibly others less so. In Wales written and verbal bilinguality is a significant issue as English speakers lived in places which retained Welsh placenames (and to a lesser extent vice versa).  

One of the original reasons for the creation of the Cenquest 1891 census database was the disappointing result obtained when searching for known individuals. Searching for a Welsh person is difficult enough due to the limited number of names in use and hence the proliferation of similarly named individuals. This in turn means that ancillary data such as places of residence or birth are often of critical importance in the identification of an individual.  So often the failure to obtain a "hit" was clearly the result of inadequacy in the Welsh language by the enumerator or transcriber or both. The other area of concern was the lack of any checks on the internal consistency of the data. 

Cenquest has tried to reduce those sources of error. Transcription has been undertaken by staff with local knowledge and bilingual skills. Wherever possible the data has been subjected to internal consistency checks and any queries generated have been re-checked against the source materials.

The aim has been to provide information of a consistently high standard that is not slavishly dependent on the individual enumerator or transcriber. Much has been written on preserving the "purity" of the original record by transcribing "as is". Our approach is to suggest corrections or modifications where this will assist a family history researcher and to footnote any change made to the original record. We have permitted the addition of extra information in the form of honorifics, placename derivations and map references. These additions are ours and may be wrong, inaccurate or incomplete but are made in good faith to assist in the identification of people and places. In all cases we encourage family history researchers to support their identifications with a copy of the original information. We can provide this either as a hardcopy print forwarded by ordinary mail or as a scanned digital image attached to an email. Please note that the quality of the image is variable due to both legibility and preservation of the original.

 Data and facilities 

The primary dataset is a transcription of the census enumeration books which are available to Cenquest in the form of photographic materials courtesy of The National Archives.

Essentially this is a list of all places (properties) within a census enumeration district together with details of address and occupants. Schedule numbers (schedules) were allocated on an incremental sequential basis for each household and/or family. Within a schedule the members of the household were listed in order of relationship to the most "senior" or Head. A typical schedule might consist of father and mother together with their children in age order followed by servants. In other words an individual schedule may include distant relatives, visitors and workers besides the core family members.

Special enumeration records were often completed in respect of vessels, military and naval establishments together with pauper Institutions and Trinity House lights. The enumeration was usually undertaken by a senior official or his delegate. However small groups of people in these categories may also appear within the main text of an enumeration book but more often at the end as an Addendum. These "households" often contain a mix of family and organizational relationships. 

As far as possible we have tried to clarify the existence of these groups of people by generating artificial enumeration districts (900 series) and schedule numbers (where necessary) so as to organize the data in a meaningful manner (we have given relevant reference numbers and noted the source of any extractions).

Where an enumerator has omitted a schedule number we have generated a decimal fraction - so for example if 2 schedules have been omitted between schedules 7 and 8 then we have generated 7.1 and 7.2.

Enumeration districts.

The Enumeration districts define an area whose boundaries were well defined in order to avoid duplication or omissions in the recording process. Enumeration districts were grouped into sub-Registration districts which in turn provided the Registration districts of each County. Needless to say a degree of "administrative convenience" (and confusion) arises at county boundaries with some villages split across a number of counties and some parts of counties recorded in the returns of another. (Perhaps one of the more notorious is the inclusion of Cardigan the county town of Cardiganshire in the returns for Pembrokeshire, but there are many other examples. (It should also be noted that the counties and county boundaries of a century ago are not necessarily those of today). The Enumeration districts are often described in some considerable detail and we have tried to enhance this written record with visual additions. Where possible we have used contemporary material - but this has not been possible in all cases. (Should you have any material that you wish to share with fellow researchers please contact us).

 Gazetteer.

Although the majority of people recorded in the census lived in the county of their birth, there were those who were born in other parts of Wales, Britain and indeed from all around the globe. The following examples illuminate:

 Mary Anne Ladd (8 years old) - living in Moylegrove but born in the Welsh colony of Patagonia (Southern Argentina).

 Charles S Sturt (a retired general of the Indian Army) - living in Newport but born in Sydney, Australia.

 George F Graham (a retired mariner) - living in St Dogmells but born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

 Charles Morris (a young tailors apprentice) - living in Cardigan town was born in Scranton, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, USA.

 Mary A Harwood (a scholar) - living in St Mary Pembroke Dock was born in San Francisco, California, USA.

 Emma Eliza Wemys (a 65 year old married lady) living in Blaenporth, Cardiganshire was born in Port Elizabeth, Natal, which is now part of the Republic of South Africa.

 It is of course of crucial importance to your family history research to try and obtain the correct identification of the place of birth of your ancestor in order to obtain a Birth certificate - another verifiable documentation link in your researches.

There are many potential sources of confusion but especially so in Wales where the issues of Welsh and alternative spelling arise in abundance. (Alternative spellings are those that by their sheer frequency of occurrence need to be recognised even if strictly speaking they may be spelling errors).

 Further complications can arise from abbreviation (Saint, St, St., Sain and Sant), punctuation and concatenation (or any combination thereof).

For example the following:

Sanclêr, St Clears, St. Clears, Saint Clears (Carmarthenshire)

Rowen, Ro-wen, Y Ro-wen, Y Rowen (Caernarvonshire).

Duplicated placenames

Newport in Pembrokeshire (Welsh placename Trefdraeth)

Newport in Monmouthshire (Welsh placename Casnewydd - a modern artifact)

Note: Newport also exists in other areas such as the Isle of Wight and Cambridgeshire.   

Similar placenames 

St Dogwells (OS grid ref. SM9727) Welsh place name Llantydewi

St Dogmells (OS grid ref. SN1645) Welsh place name Llandudoch and with alternative spellings of St Dogmaels, St Dogmels.  

Unresolved placenames

For example St Mary(s), Pembrokeshire could refer to

St Mary (in-Liberty) in Tenby 

or St Mary Pembroke (Dock).

Bilingual placenames

It may well be that a researcher has access to documents or tradition that recall only the lesser used (and possibly abandoned) placename resulting in a failure to locate or identify a place that would have been recognised by previous generations.

For example Ambleston in Pembrokeshire is easily located and identified - but Treamlod the Welsh placename spelling of this village may elude researchers without local knowledge or relevant maps.

Similarly Hwlffordd (Haverfordwest) may not be immediately obvious.

Wdig (Goodwick) may leave both past and present generations baffled!

There is no doubt that errors have been introduced by the processes of enumeration and transcription. Cenquest has tried to minimise these by internal validity checks. Where a Pembrokeshire placename was not recognised by the Gazetteer then the source material has been reinspected and if necessary, further searches made of our placename sources in order to try and resolve the issue (many of the more elusive places have been Farms or Hamlets). For example Trecifft in Cardigan is not a village in Cardiganshire but an abandoned farm near to Cardigan town.

It has not been possible to eliminate all "unknowns" even within our target counties - we welcome any contributions that may be forthcoming from private researchers. 

Welsh language.

Clearly this is not the place for a detailed discussion but it is worth noting a few salient points about Welsh.

The adjective normally follows the noun in Welsh, in contrast to English where it precedes the noun. Hence Whitemill in English is Felinwen or "Millwhite" in Welsh.

The first letter of a Welsh word may be mutated depending upon the (historical) context according to one of three mutations:

Treiglad Meddal (soft mutation)

Treiglad Trywnol (nasal mutation)

Treiglad Llaes (aspirate mutation)

In practice this means that if the source is within a Welsh text, then a placename, for example may start off somewhat differently than if it were written in isolation.