Tracing your Caribbean family
Census records
The census is a complete count of the population of a place or address taken collectively on a specific date. The 1841 Census is considered to be the first modern UK Census and censuses have been taken every 10 years ever since (except during World War 2). However, some censuses were collected before 1841 and these vary from parish to parish and town to town. For example, Southwark Archives holds the 1831 Census for St Mary Newington Parish and some census indexes for other parishes in the borough for the early 19th Century.
The census can give details about family and other people living in the house at the time. Details usually include the full names of all occupants of the household, exact age, relationship to head of household, sex, occupation, parish and county of birth, medical disabilities and employment status. For family history researchers, the census is useful not only to make ancestral links but to provide information on other family members or lodgers living at an address and how they all lived, e.g. a large family living in small house. The census can also be used to substantiate other formal records. People from Caribbean communities may be described in these earlier Censuses as ‘negro’.
The UK census collection up to 1911 can be accessed via Ancestry. For Census information for the Caribbean islands, contact the record office or archive for the country (see page 6).
Page last updated: 15 September 2023
