Residence Note

[Zingari]

Hello - I'm looking at my ancestors in the 1841 census and in the column "Residence Note " it lists a lot of my ancestors as living "Village PB " anyone know what this means ? Many thanks

[Lesley Robertson]

What was the name of the enumeration district? and where was it - England? Wales? Elsewhere?

[almach]

Possibly: parish boundary, or parliamentary boundary

[Peter Goodey]

There is no "residence note" column in the 1841 census for England & Wales. Please provide the full standard reference.

[almach]

There is no "residence note" column in the 1841 census for England & Wales. Please provide the full standard reference.

The only column where I've seen 'village P.B. mentioned is in the one headed 'Place'

[Zingari]

Thank you everyone . I checked my ancestor info.in the 1841 census (Stonesfield , Oxfordshire ,UK) and it does say - Residence Note -Village PB. So I think it probably means Parish Boundery .

[Peter Goodey]

I repeat, there is no column called "residence note". I don't know what you're looking at.

As it happens, I scanned through the Stonesfield enumeration book and there is only one address in the parish and that is "Village P.B." This is in the "Place" column where we'd expect it to be.

"Parish Boundary" doesn't make any sense to me. A place is either within the boundary of a particular parish or it isn't.

"P.B." I think indicates Parliamentary Borough. There is a big clue in the description of the enumeration district at the start of the book. The Parliamentary Borough may not seem very important to us but it seems that it was to the census authorities.

[Squaredancer]

The transcriptions on FamilySearch for the 1841 census have a section called "Residence Note" - could that be what Zingari is looking at?

[Zingari]

Yes - my information came from the Family Search site . I do not have access / or do not know how to look at an enumeration book for Stonesfield.Is the FS information different to the actual/official records ?

[Squaredancer]

You'll find the censuses on sites like Ancestry and FindMypast - subscription or pay per view or free at big public libraries. The 1881 census is free. FamilySearch transcriptions are just that - someone looked at the originals and wrote down what they thought they saw - and that can be very wrong! It pays to check the originals.

[Zingari]

Thank you Squaredancer ! will try and look at the originals !

[Lesley Robertson]

I've also had a look at the images of the enumerator's books as provided on Ancestry and I agree with Peter (#7), PB is Parliamentary Boundary, in this case it's New Woodstock. Page 1 of the book gives the possibility of recording the Parliamentary and Municipal Boundaries (the latter not relevant in this case). The Registration District is also Woodstock.

The abbreviation "PB" does not appear anywhere in the book that I can see - it's presumably come from the transcriber.

BTW many public libraries have subscriptions to databases like Ancestry for the use of their readers, alternatively keep an eye on their site as they sometimes have weeks when they give free access.

[almach]

Parliamentary Boundary

Boundary, or Borough? Peter says Borough.

[Lesley Robertson]

Both. "Within the Parliamentary Boundary of the Borough of.."
And I have to take back what I said about the abbreviation, I missed a page. On the first page of enumerations, at the top of the column headed "Place" it says "Village PB". Thereafter it's just ditto marks.

[Peter Goodey]

Peter says Borough.

And he still does :biggrin:

[arthurk]

Boundary, or Borough? Peter says Borough.


And he still does :biggrin:

The two enumeration books for Wootton, the next-door parish, also have P.B. written against the very first entry. In these, unlike the one for Stonesfield, the Place column includes a number of different localities; it would be a strange co-incidence if P.B. referred to just the first entry in each book, so I think it must be taken as applying to everything in it - and in Stonesfield as well.

"Parliamentary Boundary" doesn't really make sense on its own, so I agree with Peter that it must be "Parliamentary Borough".

Arthur

[Lesley Robertson]

There isn't any argument, Arthur. Peter is perfectly correct.
What is said on the description page is as I quoted in #15. Within the parliamentary boundary of the parliamentary borough. No clerk is going to write that on every page if they can get away with an abbreviation.