St John's School, Wapping.

[Valda]

Hi

When I searched for example I found a James White of about the right age with a family in the City of London. Might be him, might not be him. Because relationships aren't given on the 1841 census its impossible to tell whether this boy was boarding or not and why he was boarding if he was - placed there because of a private relationship on the part of his mother, or placed there because he was receiving relief from his local poor law union. I did not check further for any other possibilities either of James or his mother. It depends how much you have searched for both of them apart (adult ages, those over 15 are usually rounded down to the nearest 5). A census is one snap shot every ten years on one particularly night. If you are working as a servant you could be living in anywhere in London. However you tend to come home when you are ill to be looked after if possible by members of your extended family or at least friends. Employers tend not to be interested much in nursing ill servants.

There really isn't plenty of evidence they never left Wapping and there are lots of London areas that are close by. Wapping probably wouldn't be the area that would be most fruitful in London if you were looking for a position of servant. It wasn't an area of wealth. Therefore by necessity you may very well not look for employment there. If you want your young son close by you lodge him close by (in affordable terms) to where you are working, not close by to Wapping necessarily if that is further away and possibly not as close as you would like to the area you are working in. If the child is being lodged by the poor law union he would be lodged with whoever has offered to take children for payment.

1839 death of father
1842 death of mother
does not tell you what happened between these two events. An approximately 3 year period is quite a chunk of time.

How do you know in 1842 William began an apprenticeship in Bostock Street? Under the old apprenticeship system which by the C19th was breaking down, an apprenticeship lasted 7 years and was begun around the age of 14.

The list of the known missing pieces of the censuses can be found here

http://www.findmypast.co.uk/helpadvice/knowledge-base/census/#issues


Regards

Valda

[Carl42]

Hi Valda - Many thanks for your comments.

Yes, I too have found this James (and also Martha age 40 living in Marylebone), but with a name as common as WHITE, just a name and age is insufficient data to form any conclusions.  I really need to either find the family clustered together or in a location where they previously or subsequently.

I am at a loss what to make of 'Known Problems with the 1841 Census'.  In the last day or so I have looked closely at '1841 Census - Middlesex - St George in the East - St John'.  There are just two districts listed.  'District 1' covers streets sandwiched between Ratcliffe Highway and the north wall of the old London Docks.  'District 6' covers a small area currently shown on the London A to Z as 'Gdns' just to the right of Tench Street, Wapping.  All the rest of 'St George's in the East - St John' is missing (presumably covered by the missing Districts 2,3,4,5 +possibly more).  Why this is not listed in 'Problems with the 1841 Census' I do not know.  Furthermore if missing districts in other parishes are anything to go by then a large percentage of the 1841 census is missing and an unrecognised problem.

My next questions are -

Is the information contained in these missing districts completely lost, or is it just missing from 'Ancestry' (but still available somewhere)?

How do we get this 'problem' of missing districts recognised and dealt with?

I am unsure if you are part of 'Ancestry' or not.  Perhaps I should raise a new 'post in Rootsweb entitled 'Problems with the 1841 Census?' and invite others to comment.

Kind Regards  Carl

[Valda]

Hi

I gave the list of missing areas of London from Findmypast not Ancestry, though Ancestry's list is the same - supplied by The National Archives who have gone through the surviving census returns and listed missing piece numbers (enumerator's books), though not necessarily streets which enumerators missed out or pages missing from their books, just where the book itself is missing.  So if you think differently you need to contact The National Archives and talk to them about it. They are the ones who filmed the census enumerators books and sold on the rights to the films to the likes of Ancestry and Findmypast who indexed the people on them.
Places are often listed differently under the 1841 census being smaller they come under adjacent place names or under parish names e.g. St something instead of the place and they be incorporated into different areas. The easiest way to tell might be to compare the 1851 census with the 1841 census. As I said before the numbering system does not necessarily indicate a piece is missing.

e.g. Wapping 1851
1a, 1b, 1c, 1d, 1e and the workhouse
St John Wapping 1841
10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and the workhouse


Regards

Valda

[Carl42]

Hi Valda.

Many thanks for all your help with this, it is very much appreciated.

Kind Regards  Carl