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The Victorian Census Project at Staffordshire University aims to computerise source documents relating to Great Britain and Ireland in the nineteenth century.
These sources include:-
The Census Abstracts are the printed census reports that were produced shortly after each census. The amount of information contained in these volumes grew as the nineteenth century progressed.
Those for 1801 and 1811 show the populations of each place (parish, chapelry, township and borough) in Great Britain along with counts of the numbers of houses and families and a simple occupational breakdown. The 1801 census report also details the numbers of baptisms, marriages and burials in each hundred over the previous 100 years.
The 1821 report is basically the same as those of 1801 and 1811 except that the ages of the population in each hundred (or wapentake) are also given. The 1831 report includes an extended classification of male occupations.
Following the introduction of census enumerators' books in 1841 the scope of the census reports was greatly increased to include details of the birthplaces and occupations of males and females. From 1851 the census abstract also includes details of the marital statuses of the population.
In the 1851, 1861 and 1871 census volumes detailed information was given for each Poor Law Union in England and Wales.
Vital registration refers to the registration of births, marriages and deaths, which began, in England and Wales, in 1837. Although the actual registers recording these vital events are closed to public inspection details of the numbers of births, marriages and deaths in each registration district (or Poor Law Union) were published annually. These statistics also include details of the numbers of illegitimate births, causes of death and the numbers of males and females who signed the marriage register - the later being a 'crude' measure of literacy.
Poor Law Statistics were published twice yearly. They record the numbers of men, women and children in receipt of both indoor and outdoor relief.
Crime statistics recorded the number of court cases each year, the offences for which people were tried, the outcomes of trails and the sentences imposed upon the guilty.
Agricultural statistics have been published annually in Great Britain since the early 1870s. They detail the acreage of different crops under cultivation and the numbers of different farm animals in each county.
To date the unit has computerised the 1851, 1861 and 1871 Census Abstracts for the whole of England and Wales, at the level of the Poor Law Union or Registration District. Vital registration statistics pertaining to births, marriages and deaths have also been entered on to computer for each census year.
The 1831 Census has been keyed on to computer in full.
The 1801, 1811, 1821 and 1841 census abstracts have been computerised at the level of the county and work is progressing on both the 1891 and 1901 census abstracts
Pigot's and Slater's Topology of the British Isles have also, in abridged form, been computerised, and a hypertext version of it is under development. Click here if you would like to know more about the work of Pigot and Slater.