The "deaf, dumb, imbecile" part of the 1911 census

[Preshous]

Gaie

Thank god for that. I thought I'd lost the plot.

[stanmapstone]

For examples of actual 1901 census pages in original colour see http://www.rootschat.com/links/02fc/  which is RG13 piece 297 folio 22 page 1, and http://www.rootschat.com/links/02fd/ which is RG13 piece 1835 folio 94 page 35.

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,275241.msg1592050.html#msg1592050


Stan

[willow154]

Hi,
I found some the other day with lots of ticks in this column and thought 'goodness', but then came to the conclusion that it was the enumerators check marks.
Paulene

[stanmapstone]

Hi

I wouldn't like to hazard a guess regarding percentage. Interesting question though. I wonder if anyone has done any statistics on it?

Summary tables of Persons returned as blind, deaf and dumb, deaf, lunatic, imbecile, or feeble-minded or suffering from combined infirmities, in administrative counties, and county and Metropolitan boroughs, 1901 are at
http://www.rootschat.com/links/05jr/
Stan

[Gaie]

Thanks for those links, Stan - don't the coloured pages make a difference 

Kind regards
Gaie

PS Preshous, I'm not sure I've ever had the plot......

[Evie]

Yes Stan, thankyou, very interesting

Evie

[angelan]

Hi Evie,

Yes, that is exactly what I was thinking. Do you have any idea of (very) approximately what percentage of people would be classified as having a "disability" in say the 1901 census? I mean, if I was to look at 50 households, and say 5 households had an x in the column for some persons, and none of the 50 households had no other writing in that column, would this mean that the 'x' probably meant disability, as one would expect at least someone from 50 households to be disabled?

Thank you.

Hello Ahmed

I once came across a census with many comments in the last column. They included descriptions such as imbecile, lunatic, idiot, blind, deaf and dumb. There seemed to be more idiots than anything else.

This was a census for a workhouse. I had only just started on family history and this was the first workhouse census I had seen. It almost made me cry!

Apart from censuses for institutions, comments in the last column seem quite rare. I have found a distant relative who was deaf and dumb and another described as consumptive. They are the only two from hundreds of viewed census records. It looks as though most of them were put into institutions. What a life they must have had!

Angela

[lyssy29]

Hi All,

I also have a similar problem; my 4th great aunt also has a word under the "deaf and dumb, blind, lunatic, imbecile, feeble-minded." If anyone can help me translate, it would be appreciated!

Thank you xx

[Douglas P]

lyssy, I'd guess it's continued from the previous column. It looks like 'Glam' so perhaps she was born in Wales, in the county of Glamorgan.

P.S. I see you replied to a 16 year old discussion.