Numbers on census return

[Michael]

So... having made a sort of new year's resolution to get stuck back into my research after not having done any for a while, I've taken advantage of the FMP offer, started searching and the first thing I find is my great-grandfather and his family on the 1911 census.



Most of it I can understand, but I'm a bit puzzled by the numbers added in unexpected places - 150 and 390 in the occupation column, 0 and 0 in the employer/employed/self-employed, 460 in the nationality, 3 at the bottom and 2 in the right-hand margin. Do these mean anything or are they just the random scribblings of the enumerator?

Also, the infirmity column is blanked out - is this for privacy reasons, since a number of the people recorded on the census may still be alive? Sorry if these are stupid questions, due to the aforementioned lack of recent research I've never seen a 1911 return before!

[kiterunner]

The numbers refer to categories that were used by the people who processed the forms, not the enumerator but further along the line.
Yes, the reason for the white strip covering that column is indeed because some of the people on that census could still be alive. When the hundred years is up we will be allowed to see the entries in that column too, even though of course some of the people will live past 100.

[Olde Crone]

Michael

when it was agreed to release the 1911 census early, it was with the proviso that "sensitive" information would be suppressed until 2012.

Sensitive includes disability, so that column is blocked out. Personally, I would have thought that the imates of Lunatic Asylums were also sensitive information, but apparently not, lol!

Those random numbers are just the statisticians codes.

OC

[Michael]

Thanks for the explanation.