1871 Census

The 1871 census for England was taken on the night of 2 April 1871. Enumeration forms were distributed to all households a few days before the census night and the household members were required to complete the forms themselves. The next day, the enumerators collected the completed forms. All of the details from the individual forms were later sorted and copied into enumerators’ books.

The information requested on the census included:

Address (name of the street, avenue, or road; house number)
Occupant (name of each person who spent the night in the house; their birthplace and relationship to head of family)
Residence (whether home was inhabited; number of rooms occupied)
Personal (sex, age, marital status)
Occupation (whether employer, employee, or neither)
Health (whether blind, deaf, dumb, imbecile, idiot, or lunatic)