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1861 census

This page covers the 1861 census for England and Wales. The census was taken the night of Sunday 7 April 1861.

What does it contain?

The information you will find from the 1861 census is as follows:

  • Address
  • Whether it is inhabited or not
  • Name of person
  • Relationship to head of family
  • Whether married (mar), unmarried (un) or widowed (w)
  • Age
  • Whether male or female
  • Rank, profession or occupation
  • Place of birth – county and place
  • Whether blind or deaf-and-dumb

How do I find my ancestor?

If you subscribe to a site, such as ancestry.co.uk, you can consult their person index for the 1861 census. These have been compiled by transcribers. As many returns were hard to read, your ancestor’s name may have been transcribed wrongly. Therefore, you may have to use some ingenuity in your search.

If you can’t find the person you are interested in, you can try browsing the actual census returns for the place you think they were living.

How do I find a place?

The reference used by the National Archives for the 1861 census is RG9 (RG 9). If you would like to find the reference for a particular place, search The National Archives’ catalogue for the 1861 census. Set the year range to 1861-1861. Type in RG9 as the series code. Then enter the place name.

What places are missing?

Here is a list of counties from The National Archives with the parishes that are missing:

England...

  • Cambridgeshire – Leverington Hamlet (part of hamlet Parson-Drove missing).

  • Cheshire – Heswall (Gayton and part of Heswall-with-Oldfield missing).

  • Durham – Brancepeth (hamlet Hedley Hope missing).

  • Kent – Goodnestone (reported missing 2002), Wateringbury (part missing, including hamlet Lily Hoe).

  • Middlesex (including London) – all these parishes are part-missing: Inner Temple, St Bride, St Dunstan-in-the-West (hamlets Cliffords Inn and Serjeants Inn, Chancery Lane are missing), St Gregory by St Paul, St Mary Staining, St Michael-le Quern.

  • Norfolk – Great Yarmouth (Cobham Island).

  • Northumberland – Newburn (part missing – hamlets of Black Callerton, Butterlaw, East and West Whorlton, Newbiggin, East Denton, West Denton, Newburn-Hall and Sugley are all missing).

  • Yorkshire – Marske (mostly missing, including hamlets Redcar and Marske).

Wales...

  • Brecknockshire – Brecknock (St David and Lower Division or Llanfaes part missing), Llanigon (Llanigon and Glynfach missing), Hay (part missing).

  • Cardiganshire – Llanycrwys (part of Fforest and all of Mynachty missing).

  • Flintshire – Mold (Nerquis part missing, Gwsaney, Hartsheath and Hendrebiffa missing).

  • Merionethshire – Llanfihangel-glynmyfyr (hamlets Llanfihangel-glynmyfyr and Cefnpost missing).

  • Monmouthshire – Llangattock (part missing), Magor (hamlet of Redwick missing), Machen (most of Upper Machen and Lower Machen missing, all of Rhydgwern missing – Rhydgwern is in Glamorgan), Michaelstoneyvedw (hamlet of Michaelstoneyvedw Llanvedw missing – this is in Glamorgan), Tythegston (hamlet of Lower Tythegston missing).

  • Montgomeryshire – Guilsfield (part missing), Llanarmonmynyddmawr (in Denb, missing), Llanfyllin (mostly missing), Llansaintffraid (Pool Division part missing).

  • Radnorshire – Radnor (part missing).

Others...

The islands of Le Marchant and Great and Little Sark are also missing.

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