Census

Availability of Census Returns

Wolverhampton Archives and Local Studies has microfiche/microfilm copies of census returns for Wolverhampton. For a full list of areas available Click here.

There is no charge for searching the census returns and prints of relevant pages can be supplied for a small fee. If you are unable to visit us in person we offer a searching service where staff can search on your behalf.

Census returns are also available at the Family Records Centre and for Staffordshire at the Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent
Archive Service.

I know the address my family lived at but how do I find the relevant page on the census return?

The population of Wolverhampton in 1841 was 36,382 rising to 82,662 in 1891. To search through all these records would obviously be a very time consuming task. However all the returns for Wolverhampton have street indexes which allows the researcher to pinpoint the page on the census returns. Click here to view the indexes, which also give you the reference number that you need to find the entry.

I know my ancestors were living in Wolverhampton at the time of a census but I don't know their exact address.

There are a number of ways of overcoming this problem. If you have a birth, marriage or death certificate dated near a census return you can check the nearest census return for the address given on the certificate.

The other alternative is to use a surname index. The whole of the 1881 census for England and Wales has been transcribed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (also known as the Mormons). The transcription and the index are available on CD-ROM from Mormon Family Research Centres. For a list of such centres Click here.

There are a number of other surname indexes available.
Wolverhampton Archives and Local Studies has surname indexes available for 1851 and 1891. To view the index for 1891 Click here.

I have looked at the census returns for the area in which I think my family lived but couldn't find them there. Why is this?

There may be number of explanations for this. The family may have moved to a different address, or they may simply been away from home on the night the census was taken perhaps visiting relatives or friends.

The family may have been moved to the workhouse, or been sent to prison, or at school.

The family may have not had a permanent home - they may have been gypsies or other travellers, or they may have worked on the canal and lived on a boat.

The only way to trace people who do not appear at their supposed home is through the use of surname indexes (for a surname index to the 1891 census Click here).

Much work has been done on the boat people of the Black Country with indexes available on the Internet (Click here).

What other records apart from the census list individuals or families and where they lived?

Trade directories and Electoral registers