The 1841 census is the earliest and first census in the UK that has survived as a whole. Other census were taken before hand but only parts of each have survived. So what are you likely to find when researching the 1841 census? When you find your ancestor it will give them at a residence which will contain the following details for example their name, sex, occupation and their age given. Now remember with the census not everything is accurate there are mistakes on there. Human error and sometimes peoples different interpretations on how names are spelt. It was the duty of the head of the household who was given the responisbility to complete and record all these details of everyone who lived under he or shes household. Everything had to be completed and given to the enumerator by the 7th June. Each person under 15 had to give their accurate age and anyone above was rounded down to the nearest 5 years. So for example John Barnard could be 43 and recorded as 40. So bare this in mind when you research.
Every census for me personally is like a time machine that gives you a small glimpse of your ancestors lives in that small fraction of time. It gives you an insight of who they were as people and who they were living with along with their occupations who said a lot about their lifestyle.
