1921 UK Census

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Stef Duma
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1921 UK Census

Post by Stef Duma »

Today the 1921 census for the UK is published. I have been waiting months for this as unlike the USA which I believe has a 72 year gap the UK is 100 years. The 1931 census was destroyed by fire during the bombing of London in 1942 so there is a considerable gap.

This will list the occupation of all the people and I hope will be searchable, hoping to find the Fishing Reel Makers, Fly tiers, and other tackle related trades.

It is being published by findmypast and I have taken a subscription for one year and they charge an additional fee for this census. I can understand this as I believe there were miles of documents on shelves and 38 million records to digitise.

Really looking forward to searching the records, especially the Alnwick, Newark, Redditch and Birmingham reel makers.
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RonG
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Re: 1921 UK Census

Post by RonG »

This Info from the 1920's would provide important information to researchers since this is after WWI and the tackle business was really taking off.
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Mike N
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Re: 1921 UK Census

Post by Mike N »

Stef, very interesting. Until your post I did not realize that “Public access to individual census returns in England and Wales is normally restricted under the terms of the 100-year rule (Lord Chancellor's Instrument no.12, issued in 1966 under S.5 (1) of the Public Records Act 1958).”

You are correct about the US. “ The U.S. government will not release personally identifiable information about an individual to any other individual or agency until 72 years after it was collected for the decennial census. The "72-Year Rule" - History - U.S. Census Bureau. I assume this is based on average life expectancy.

Should be a treasure trove for researchers.

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Stef Duma
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Re: 1921 UK Census

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Well I typed Fishing Tackle and there are 1039 results. Further filtering for Alnwick gives 89 results.

Vert excited as to what I will find.
Stef Duma
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Re: 1921 UK Census

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One really great addition on this census that the people are asked which company they work for.

I have also discovered that one of the characters in my next book was a bigamist!
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Steve
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Re: 1921 UK Census

Post by Steve »

...one of the characters in my next book was a bigamist!
Tackle tinkering, as many of us know, can lead to marital problems. One reel inventor was murdered with his girlfriend while his wife was at home with the kids over forty miles away (The Reel News, Vol. XXIX, No. 4, July, 2019, pp. 8-10,15). The inventor of a spring-activated fish hook was married and divorced twice, and his third wife left him after two years (N.F.L.C.C. Gazette, in press).

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Retropeche
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Re: 1921 UK Census

Post by Retropeche »

I researched a friend's family tree and also the Alnwick tackle makers from the 1860's to 1960's. It is surprising how many mistakes can be found in these records. Given that the first record, i.e. the householder's declaration was made by people who may have been illiterate that could explain a lot of it along with shoddy recordings by public authorities. Also there are many instances where families use repetative Christian names through the generations and even siblings with the same names. Then there are many records where a subject's date of birth, place of birth or name have changed in records over the years making the following of these records challenging to say the least.

Nothing should be believed without corroberation.
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Stef Duma
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Re: 1921 UK Census

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Well one thing that has turned up is Dingley, a very very interesting entry that will cause all the Dingley historians to rewrite and evaluate what has been written
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Steve
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Re: 1921 UK Census

Post by Steve »

mistakes can be found in these records
You betcha! Data were recorded by door-to-door canvassers with various levels of literacy, variable qualities of handwriting, etc. I doubt that they always inquired about name spelling, and lots of the canvassed may not have been able to spell their names correctly or consistently to begin with. Then the data had to be copied by hand for compilations. Until the linotype machine was invented in the mid-1880s, the compilations had to be copied by typesetters reading the compilations and setting type by hand. Furthermore, early street addresses were often arbitrary, and official addresses were adopted at different times in different locations. It's amazing that any of the earlier records are correct.

And there are other problems. When hunting through U.S. census records, on several occasions I've found the same family listed twice in different locations. Not all the canvassing was done on the same day, and now and then a family was recorded in one city, then moved to another before the census was completed in their new location. Sigh...

Steve Vernon
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Book: ANTIQUE FISHING REELS, 2nd Ed.
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Antique Fishing Reels
Kopf reels
Hendrick reels

"Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose."
Stef Duma
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Re: 1921 UK Census

Post by Stef Duma »

The great thing about the UK census is that all records have to be completed for the same day.

1901 April 1st.
1911 April 2nd
1921 June 19th

Its still the same today.

Lots of personal comments written by disgruntled people after WW1. "A home fit for hero's, I don't think so" was one of them.
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