Question about census references

[birdsedge]

Am I in the right forum to ask a how-to? Can anyone tell me... or can anyone point me to a relevant bit of FAQ, please.

How do I give the correct reference for a census entry?

I see things like:
Source Citation: Class: RG10; Piece: 3038; Folio: 66; Page: 29;
but when I look up census entries on Genes Reunited (to which I have a subscription) the only reference I can see on the originals is a number like:
HO107/2345/1

So how do I find the correct source reference?

And when someone gives me a source reference how do I find the relevant entry?

I don't own any census CDs, so I only have my Genes Reunited subscription.

Thanks.

[Mutley]

Each census had a different number to start.

HO107/753-794 = 6 July 1841
HO107/1806-1832 = 30 March 1851
RG9/= 7 April 1861
RG10/= 2 April 1871
RG11/ = 3 April 1881
RG12/ = 5 April 1891
RG13/ = 31 March 1901

Both references you gave are OK.

BG Forums explains all you need to know here (http://www.british-genealogy.com/resources/census/index.htm).

[Colin Moretti]

Each census had a different number to start.

HO107/753-794 = 6 July 1841
...Slight error on this one I'm afraid Mutley.

should be HO107/1 (in Bedfordshire) to HO107/1465 (Isle of Man)

(at least, according to Index of Census Registration District, 1841-1891 by M E Bryant Rosier (6th ed) )

The lowest number I can be sure of (I have a copy) is HO107/49 (Hardwick, Bedfordshire)

I addition, the 1841 census only also a book number included in the reference, thus:

HO107/1057, book 5, folio 26, page 46 (HO107/1057/5/26) (I have this one too - Lambeth)

Colin

[Mutley]

I knew I was going to get my knickers in a twist on that one:D
I hope birdsedge gets the correct answers from the BG link.

[Peter Goodey]

The first part of the census reference should be Departmental Code (eg RG); Series (eg 13); Piece number (eg 1234) Conventionally there is a space between the Departmental Code and the Series number and a slash between the Series and the Piece number.

Thus RG 13/1234 uniquely identifies one of the pieces in the 1901 census.

"Piece" is an archivists' term for a bundle or file or folder or box or chunk of records.

When you go to the National Archives you'll find that a "piece" is what you order and what will turn up for you to look at.

Now folio numbers. These are important. For the census, these are rubber stamped numbers on one side of each sheet of paper.

For 1851 onwards, the numbers start at 1 and run straight through each piece (ie there can be no more than one "Folio 34" in a piece).

For 1841, they started the folio numbers at 1 for each enumeration book. As there are several enumeration books in a piece, that means that "Folio 34" occurs several times in each piece of the 1841 census. For this reason, a book number is included in the reference. Conventionally this is shown preceded by a slash immediately after the piece number eg HO 107/123/3.

In order to identify which side of the sheet we're talking about we usually add the page number (this is the pre printed page number in the census book). Recto/verso works just as well.

Now we can expand the examples above like this...

RG 13/1234 f 23 p 1 ("folio" or "f", "page" or "p", it doesn't really matter)

HO 107/123/3 f 24 p 3

No doubt that's all as clear as mud