Dorchester - St Peters

NOTE:- The 1851 Census was taken on the 31st March 1851 for the night of 30/31 March, using methods similar to those for 1841. However the questions asked make this census considerably more useful than the earlier one.

Name of Street, Place or Road: Most enumerators inserted the name of the street at the start of the page and when the name changed rather than for each household. In some cases it may be necessary to page back to locate it if viewing originals. Workhouse, schools or institutions often only give details on the first page.

Names: Christian & Surname of each person that spent the night in that household. Sometimes a second Christian name or an initial is given.

Relation to head of the family: Essential genealogical information but beware of assuming that a person's relationship to the head of the family is the same as the relationship to his wife. The man may have married twice, in which case his wife may be stepmother to some or all of his children.

Condition: Whether that individual was Married (M), Unmarried (U), Widower (W) or Widow (W)

Age : Shown in two columns, one for males, the other for females. Verbal Returns were sometimes misheard. Again ages were not always correctly stated

Occupation: As for 1841. Children being educated were shown as "scholar"

Where born: Parish and County if in England or Wales, but the Country only if in Scotland or Ireland. 'Foreign Parts' if abroad. Verbal Returns by illiterates were sometimes misheard

Whether blind, deaf and dumb, imbecile or lunatic: self explanatory