1911 census

[Pels.]

If you check this BBC link, you can make comparisons between then and now :

'A century ago, a new expanded form was evidence of a government's thirst for knowledge in their efforts to help a population stricken by poverty, bad nutrition and high infant mortality.'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12324970

Pels.

[RoDe]

Hi Pels

Thanks for the advice.  It's the first 1911 census record I have looked for so I didn't know that child deaths were recorded.  I'm pretty sure that they would have married in Bilston as several generations of the Harris clan were born/died there.

I thought of finding the marriage details and then searching for a Harris death between that date and 1911 as the death would almost certainly have taken place between those two dates.  What do you think of this for starters.

I'm keen to find out more if I can as I have never heard anything discussed in the family about a third sibling in addition to an Auntie and Uncle.  I suppose this is one of the interesting things about family research is finding facts that are not immediately apparent.

Regards
rode
 

[carol8353]

The question in 1911 asked how long a couple had been married and how many live children born and still alive to that marriage.

You will find that people often got a bit confused,some put down all children which belonged to a previous marriages,some entered miscarriages or stillbirths.Some wrote the names of those children who had died and you will find in some cases that the enumerator had to cross them out.

With an unusual surname you can search FreeBMD for births and deaths between censuses ,but not with a name like Harris,there will be hundreds.

Your best bet will be parish records,if they baptised their babies,and burial records(which HAD to be completed)

You can often work out where there is space for a child to be born,by the ages of the others.
First babies were often born within the first year, or even sooner sometimes,of marriage.

Carol

[MargP]

Hi

If they had been married 7 years, and the 1st living child is 5, you have a time span of 2/3 years that should reduce your search,also usually the 1st child was born within 12 months of being married, unless she was with child when they married

Margp