Today is Charles Dickens’ 200th birthday and to mark the occasion, we’ve been investigating the records on findmypast.co.uk to see what they can tell us about Dickens’ life.

We feel like we know Dickens a little bit better following our research - read on to find out what our records reveal about this extraordinary man.

Baptism

It seemed logical to start at the beginning, so our first stop was to search for Dickens’ baptism record. Dickens’ unusual middle name makes it easy to be sure that we’ve found the right man.

Dickens record shows that he was baptised in Portsea St Mary, Hampshire on 4 March 1812. We can also learn that Dickens’ parents are called John and Elizabeth:

Charles Dickens' baptism record - click to enlarge

Marriage

Fast-forwarding a few years, we discovered the record of Dickens’ marriage to Catherine Thomson Hogarth. The pair married in Chelsea, Middlesex on 2 April 1836:

Charles Dickens' marriage record - click to enlarge

Dickens and Catherine lived in Bloomsbury where they went on to have 10 children. Sadly, the couple separated in 1858 but never divorced; this wouldn’t have been a socially acceptable action for someone as well-known as Dickens.

Dickens in 1861

By 1861, Catherine and her son, Charles Jr, had moved out of the family home and Catherine’s sister, Georgina, was living with Dickens and the rest of the children. Georgina took Dickens’ side in his rift with Catherine and took over the running of the household.

In the same year that ‘Great Expectations’ was published, Dickens’ 1861 census return provides us with a glimpse into his life at this time. Dickens is described as ‘married’, giving away nothing of his separation from Catherine.

Dickens’ occupation is listed as ‘Author Novelist Essayist & Editor’ and Georgina is recorded as ‘Servant Housekeeper’:

Charles Dickens' 1861 census return - click to enlarge

Death

Next we found Dickens’ death record. He died on 9 June 1870 in North Aylesford, Kent - view the record here:

Charles Dickens' death record - click to enlarge

As well as this record, we unearthed a different record of Dickens’ death on findmypast.co.uk

Dickens was a shareholder in the Great Western Railway, which means that a record of his death appears in the GWR Shareholders Index.

The GWR recorded all transactions that related to shareholdings which changed hands due to an event other than a simple sale. The most common event recorded in the ledger was the death of the shareholder. When a shareholder died, their shares were passed to their beneficiaries and the executors handled the administration of the estate.

Displaying further evidence of his rift with his wife, Dickens’ record shows that his wife’s sister, Georgina, and friend, John Forster, were the executors. View this beautifully handwritten original document here:

Charles Dickens' Great Western Railway Shareholders Index record - click to enlarge

We hope you enjoyed discovering what the records on findmypast.co.uk reveal about Charles Dickens’ life.

Today is Winnie the Pooh’s 85th birthday and to commemorate his author AA Milne, we’ve been investigating Milne’s family history.

Educational ancestors

We discovered that Milne came from a family of school teachers. Our first stop was the census records on findmypast.co.uk where we found Milne in the 1891 census. He is recorded at Henley House School, Mortimer Road, Hampstead, aged nine. He is listed as a scholar with his father, John Milne, the schoolmaster. John was born in Jamaica and was married to Sarah Heginbotham. See the record here:

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Ten years later, the 1901 census tells us that Milne’s father had moved on from Henley House School and was the schoolmaster at Streete Court School, Westgate-on-Sea, Kent. Milne was living with his aunt and uncle as a Cambridge undergraduate at this time.

Milne’s uncle, Alexander Milne, was the principal of the Boys’ Private School, University School, Holmesdale Gardens, Hastings. Alexander is listed in the Teachers’ Registration Council Registers 1914-1948 on findmypast.co.uk. He registered on 1 July 1919 and his career in education spanned 1871 to 1932. View Alexander’s record here:

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Our research revealed further evidence of teaching in Milne’s family. Milne’s mother and maternal grandmother, both named Sarah Heginbotham, were school mistresses at Brooklyn House, Wellington, Shropshire at the time of the 1871 census.

Milne’s paternal grandfather, William Milne, was recorded as being an inspector of schools in the 1861 census, which made us wonder whether he was the catalyst for the family’s teaching tradition.

At the time of the 1911 census, Milne was living at Broadgates, Steeple Bumpstead in Essex with his parents. Milne was recorded as being a journalist, working on his ‘own account and Punch‘. By this time, his father was a retired schoolmaster.

Milne on the move

We were intrigued to find Milne 20 years later in the passenger lists on findmypast.co.uk travelling as a first class passenger to the USA with his wife, Dorothy.

The couple were aboard the Aquitania, which departed Southampton for New York on 21 October 1931. In the detailed log, Milne is described as an author and his address is recorded as being 13 Mallord Street SW3. View the record here:

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As Milne’s ancestry demonstrates, you can glean huge amounts of detail when you find your ancestors in the Teachers’ Registration Council Registers 1914-1948 on findmypast.co.uk. We are working in partnership with the Society of Genealogists to bring you these rich records.

We are very proud to announce the launch of four sets of nineteenth and twentieth century military records to help enrich your family history. The records provide useful detail including attestation and leaving dates, achievements made in service and soldiers’ physical appearence. And, certainly in the case of the 1861 records, the records can fill in gaps left by the census.

The releases are the 1861 Worldwide Army Index, Royal Fusiliers Collection 1863-1905, Paddington Rifles 1860-1912 and Surrey Recuitment Registers 1908-1933.

The 1861 Worldwide Army Index (or The 1861 Worldwide Soldier Index) entailed the extraction of some 245,000 serving soldiers.

The Paddington Rifles database contains the names of over 8,600 men who served with the battalion from its inception in 1860 until its demise in 1912. It can therefore be a vital tool in providing colour to your London ancestors.

The Royal Fusiliers Collection 1863-1905 comprises the names of close to 5000 officers and men who took part in a series of British military campaigns between 1863 and 1904.

The Surrey Recruitment Registers comprises details of approximately 85,000 men who attested for service with a variety of regiments in Surrey between 1908 and 1933.

You can also have a look through all our military records.

Our resident expert Stephen Rigden, pictured below, answers your queries.

From Margaret Taylor in Bournemouth:

‘I am trying to trace details for Anne Singer, nee Ogilvie.

Anne Ogilvie, spinster, was married by license to George Singer, a bachelor, on 13 July 1840 at Fort William, Calcutta, West Bengal, India. No parentage or age was given. Their daughter, Emily Singer, was born at Fort William India on 20 July 1841.

George Singer returned to England between 1841 and 1851, where he was born in 1805. He appears in the 1851 census, living in Bath with his sister. He is described as a widower and pensioner of the Hon. E. India Co. Their daughter Emily Singer is missing from the 1851 census but appears in the 1861 census.

I am desperate to find any of the following:

Date and place of birth.
Parentage.
Date, place and age at death.’

Stephen says:

‘Don’t lose heart yet! I cannot provide an instant answer to your question, although I can let you in on some good news. Findmypast.co.uk is partnering with the British Library to digitise and publish online a significant part of its collection of British in India records of interest to family historians.

The records selected for digitisation include many hundreds of thousands that relate to birth, baptism, marriage, death and burial in the Indian Subcontinent and other parts of the then Empire subordinated to the India Office, as opposed to the Colonial Office. This is an important distinction - for example, Aden in Arabia, St Helena in the South Atlantic and Fort Marlborough in Sumatra all came under the jurisdiction of the India Office, while unfortunately Ceylon, tantalisingly close to India itself, was within the ambit of the Colonial Office.

As well as actual registers of vital events, findmypast.co.uk will be publishing other records which also give rich biographical information about the British in India, whether those in the army, in the colonial administration, or planters, merchants and other civilians.

‘British’ in India is significant. The Empire was not an English but a British project and, for example, Scots were significantly over-represented in Imperial India. I mention this as the name Anne Ogilvie looks very Scottish. The task you face will still not be straightforward once we have published the records to which I have just referred. As you say, the marriage register is silent as to the age at marriage and the parentage of Anne Ogilvie. Her husband would have been about 35 at marriage; Anne may have been coeval, or she may have been 16 or indeed 45.

Perhaps the best hope is that you find the death or burial of Anne Singer between July 1841 and 1851 among the Indian death records that we will be publishing (I am assuming you have checked English death indexes for this period) and that these give at least an age at death from which you can calculate her approximate year of birth and start looking meaningfully for her birth in India, or in Scotland, or in England. Depending on how prominent her husband was, there may be an informative memorial inscription once you know place of death, or even an obituary, for his wife. East India Company records for the husband may also shed some light on his wife - in particular, pension records sometimes give information about spouse and issue and we hope to be publishing this record type in due course.’

If you’d like to send your question to our experts, please register or opt to receive newsletters in My Account. Unfortunately our experts only have time to answer a few queries each month. If yours wasn’t answered this time, you could be lucky next month!

Our resident expert Stephen Rigden, pictured below, answers your queries.

From Marilyn Ellis from Aberdeenshire:

‘For the last 40 years, I and my aunt before me have been trying to trace details of the life of my great grandfather. The elusive William Basterfield was supposedly born in Stourbridge Workhouse around 1858, the illegitimate son of Elizabeth ? Basterfield and a shoemaker by the name of Adrian Mountfield.

I cannot trace my Basterfield line because I cannot find my great great grandmother. All I know for certain is that her last name was Basterfield. I have researched every William Basterfield born from about 1855 onwards but I’ve had no luck finding his birth record.

The records for Stourbridge Workhouse for this period are missing. There are no entries on the 1861 census and a possible entry on the 1871 census showing him living alone in Halesowen and his profession as ‘shoemaker’.

My first real evidence of William is a marriage certificate dated 1880, which gives details of his marriage to my great grandmother Elizabeth Faulkner.

The strange thing is that his name is stated as William Mountfield, profession shoemaker, son of Aid Mountfield. By the following year, however, he is shown on the 1881 census as William Basterfield. He appears again on the 1891 census but that’s the last census entry for him.

My grandfather Joseph Arthur Basterfield was born in 1895, the seventh child of the marriage. By 1900, however, my great grandmother was living with a Stephen Price by whom she had two further children. The story in the family was that she had thrown William out of the house because of his hard drinking and he had gone to live in Worcester.

There is no record of him, however, after his name appears on my grandfather’s birth certificate in 1895. I have searched every available record but I can’t find anything! I am not sure when my great grandmother’s relationship started with Stephen Price but she never married him. His name does appear, however, on my great aunt and uncle’s birth certificates.

The unusual thing is that although I cannot trace my maternal great great grandmother or her son William, I have been able to trace the life of Adrian Mountfield. It seems that Adrian lived life to the full, drinking and womanising, never marrying and he finally died in Sedgley Workhouse in 1885. I have even traced the Mountfield line back to the 18th century.

My father is now 91 and it would be great if I could tell him what happened to his grandfather, a man whose name was never mentioned in the family.’

Stephen says:

‘I do not think this problem can be easily solved, but I would like to give a few thoughts and suggestions, just in case you have not already considered them, and just in case they might assist other family historians confronting similar problems in their own research.

Firstly, you do not identify in your email the source of the information that William’s mother was Elizabeth, so I am assuming this has come down to you as family legend. Assuming for now that the mother did bear this name and proceeding upon the basis that her child was born illegitimately, we need to consider the three possible scenarios:

1. The mother was a spinster
2. The mother was a married woman, perhaps but not necessarily separated from her husband
3. The mother was a widow

These scenarios give very different potential profiles for Elizabeth. She may have been, say, a 15 year old girl living at home with her parents, or she may have been a mature 45 year old with a number of children by her late husband and now having a final child out of wedlock, or she could have been somewhere on the spectrum of age and experience between these two points.

Note that age and experience do not necessarily tie up simplistically. It is quite possible to play with these ages and come up with Elizabeth either as a young widow of 21 or as a spinster in her 40s at the time of birth of her child.

Now let us assume that the son William was indeed born in 1858. If so, our imaginary scenarios give a possible year of birth for Elizabeth ranging from 1813 (if aged 45 years at his birth) to 1843 (if aged 15 years at his birth). We would wish to extend this by a year or two on either side, not least because the year of birth of William is unproven.

I looked up the death of the putative father Adrian Mountfield and see that he was aged 55 at his death in March 1885, suggesting that he was born circa 1829/30. If so, he would have been aged 28 or 29 years when William was born in 1858.

A typical male/female relationship of that time would be where the parties were of similar age or the man being up to maybe eight years older. Of course we are dealing with degrees of probability only, but this would place Elizabeth’s birth most likely within the period 1828 to 1838, which would make her aged 20 to 30 at the birth of William.

Do not get carried away with trying to pin down anything more exact, as this will not be possible. I am trying only to outline the various possibilities and permutations, as it is important to consider them all as theoretical possibilities and then to decide what lines of enquiry are appropriate to examine each of these. In practical terms, this means looking for the mother in, for example, the 1861 census not just as a spinster, but also as a married woman with husband and children, or as a widow with children.

Actuality may also be disguised in the records available to us. For example, were Elizabeth a 15 year old girl living at home when she had her baby in 1858, in the 1861 census her by then three year old child might be shown as if he were the son not of Elizabeth but of Elizabeth’s parents (his own maternal grandparents). This is a quite common occurrence: when their ages do not make it too improbable, i.e., the grandmother under aged 50 at the time, the grandparents bring up their unmarried daughter’s illegitimate child as one of their own.

Such a child can conceivably pass through life believing he is his grandparents’ child and, therefore, perpetuating this misapprehension on his subsequent marriage certificate and other official documents.

I appreciate that everything I have written complicates rather than simplifies, but that is the multiplicity of human experience and most researchers will need to grapple will these issues at one point or another - as I am sure you have done already when pondering the way forward on your research.

If this is a problem that you really need and want to crack, you will need to identify every possible candidate for the mother Elizabeth, using census returns, civil and parish registers, and then descend their line to positively eliminate them or leave them in contention. Ultimately, the careful and painstaking process of elimination may be the only way forward.

My other advice would be to include the usual variants in everything you do. Think of the various spellings and misspellings of Basterfield, such as Bastefield or even Baskerfield. Be generous in your expectations of the accuracy of recorded ages in the censuses and on certificates.

It is common to track a single individual through four, five or more consecutive census returns and find that his or her age goes up or down by irregular amounts between censuses - in the 10 years between the 1851 and 1861 census a person may be shown as aging an impossible 12 years, only to then age by a mere 7 years in the decade to the next census.

When William was a shoemaker’s assistant in the Chatwin household at the time of the 1871 census, his recorded age of 16 years (which gives a year of birth circa 1854/55) may not have been accurate.

Finally, remember that the Stourbridge Union was an administrative district as well as shorthand for the poorhouse or workhouse. I know you believe that the child may have been born in the Workhouse and this may well have been the fact of the matter, but I mention the other meaning of union just in case.’

If you’d like to send your question to our experts, please register or opt to receive newsletters in My Account. Unfortunately our experts only have time to answer a few queries each month. If yours wasn’t answered this time, you could be lucky next month!

Our resident expert Stephen Rigden, pictured below, answers your queries.

From Angela Dalby in Gillingham, Kent:

‘My ancestor by marriage, Edward Dalby, was born on 14 June 1839 in St. Mildred’s, Canterbury, Kent and he joined the Metropolitan police in 1873. His police records state that previous to this he was in the 7th Hussars for seven years and 313 days and the Kent County Constabulary for three years and 147 days. I can find a date of 5 January 1868 for him joining the local police constabulary so the seven years army record must be between 1859-1867?

The puzzle is that I can find no army records of service for him in the recently published Chelsea Pensioners records, unlike his father, another Edward Dalby. This Edward was born in Uppingham, Rutland 1766 and was in the army for 28 years. I have the full set of records for him. The family disappear from Canterbury in the 1861 census including Edward’s mother Elizabeth (born in Ireland in 1820), his brother Joseph born in St. Mildred’s in 1846 and also Edward senior.

Were the 7th Hussars based out of this country or am I looking in the wrong index lists? Any help would be much appreciated.’

Stephen says:

‘The 7th (Queen’s Own) Hussars were indeed out of England during the period 1859 to 1867 – they were on active service in British India from 1858 and did not return to England until 1871. The fact that Edward Dalby, your ancestor by marriage, joined the Kent police in January 1868 suggests either that he had enlisted for seven years and that those seven years were completed while in India in or before 1867 (probably in fact a year or two before 1865), or that he had left the regiment in India early due to injury or ill-health.

In any event, the records contained within The National Archives’ series WO97 relate to servicemen who were pensioned out of the army, irrespective of whether they were serving in the British Isles or overseas. We have now completed the publication of these Chelsea Pensioner records, which cover over one million men. This record series contains the majority of surviving records for pensioned soldiers but by no means all.

As you may know, findmypast.co.uk is currently in the process of digitising the WO96 Militia service records but we are also planning to publish in 2011 some other smaller TNA datasets which relate to Chelsea Pensioners or their equivalents. It is, therefore, worth keeping an eye open for the new datasets as they are released and re-checking the website regularly.’

If you’d like to send your question to our experts, please register or opt to receive newsletters in My Account. Unfortunately our experts only have time to answer a few queries each month. If yours wasn’t answered this time, you could be lucky next month!

This week on Who Do You Think You Are? Australian actor and singer Jason Donovan traced his roots.

Jason was born in Melbourne in 1968. He was brought up by his father, Terence, and is estranged from his mother, Susan Menlove. Susan’s mother Joan looked after Jason when he was a child while both his parents were busy with their show business careers.

Jason Donovan (copyright Phil Guest)

Jason’s maternal great grandmother, Eileen Dawson, was born 1886 in Melbourne. Eileen was also in show business and Jason visited Judy McCard, his mother’s cousin, to find out more. Judy confirmed that Eileen started her stage career in 1903 when her father put her on the stage. Eileen headlined nightly at the Sydney Opera House at the height of her career.

Eileen’s father was Simeon Lyons who was born in Tasmania. Joseph Lyons, Simeon’s father, first arrived in Tasmania in 1842. The findmypast.co.uk team found Joseph with wife Rosetta on our 1841 census before they left England:

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We also found Joseph, Rosetta and Simeon in the 1861 census on findmypast.co.uk:

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Jason traced his family back seven generations to find William Cox who was born 1764 in Dorset, England. Here you can see William’s baptism record, recently published on findmypast.co.uk courtesy of the Dorset Family History Society:

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From this record we can tell that William’s father was Robert Cox - one generation further back than Jason found during his research.

When he was 36, William volunteered on board the convict ship Minerva; Jason assumed he was a convict but he was actually the captain of the ship, in charge of the convicts and soldiers on board. William’s ship arrived in Sydney harbour in 1800 and during the voyage his wife Rebecca gave birth to their baby.

By 1814 William and the convicts had built 60 miles of road across the Blue Mountains from Sydney to Mount York. Jason read Cox’s memoirs which described difficult conditions, including traversing a sheer rock face. William treated the men as equals and looked after them well. In 1815 the men laid the final stretch of road - it was 101 miles long in total. This road linked Sydney to the Interior and paved the way for settlers to make their way inland to start a new life.

William died in 1837. Today’s road still follows traces of his original route.

Jason was pleased to connect with his Australian roots. The findmypast.co.uk team, however, have found more evidence in our records of Jason’s British ancestry in his paternal line.

Jason’s Donovan line were based in Staines, Middlesex as far back as we could trace them - until we got to his great-great-great-grandparents who were both born in Ireland.

Here you can see Jason’s great-grandfather Walter Donovan and great-great-grandparents John and Martha Donovan on this 1911 census return on findmypast.co.uk:

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This census return shows Walter as an Examiner and Packer for Wallpapers Ltd, while John worked as a Coal Porter. Martha had given birth to a staggering 14 children and the census form shows 12 people living in five rooms.

We also found Jason’s ancestors on the 1861 census on findmypast.co.uk. Here you can see Jason’s great-great-grandfather John (aged three) and great-great-great-grandparents, Mathew and Catherine Donovan:

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Mathew, described as a Labourer, and Catherine were both born in Ireland.

The Rowat(t) family, another side of Jason’s paternal family history, provide more British heritage and a black sheep of the family. The Rowat side were based in Kingston, Surrey until we get back to Jason’s great-great-great-grandfather who was born in Scotland.

The 1901 census on findmypast.co.uk shows Jason’s great-great-grandfather Robert Rowatt as a prisoner in HM Prison Holloway (Holloway was not made female-only until 1903):

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Robert is listed as a Bricklayer and can be found at home with his family in both the 1891 and 1911 censuses.

We found Jason’s great-great-great-grandfather Thomas Rowat, who was born in Scotland, on findmypast.co.uk’s 1851 census:

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This census return shows that Thomas was employed as a Carpenter and was lodging in Kingston with a widowed laundress and her grandson.

Our expert Stephen Rigden, pictured, answers your questions.

From Chris Hobson in Sheffield:

‘I am trying to find a great great grandfather who was born in 1823. His name was Thomas Woodhouse, born in Sheffield, and he joined the army serving in Ireland, Glerkad barracks Glasgow, Canada and Portsmouth. He must have served 12 years between 1842 and 1854 but I cannot find any trace of him in findmypast.co.uk’s military records.

I think he was overseas in 1841 because his family is not on the census. I also cannot find any record of his marriage to Maria from Lavenham, Suffolk. Can you help please?’

Steve says:

‘Thanks for your question.

If you cannot find your ancestor in the Chelsea Pensioner British Army Service Records, it is worth trying again in future. The reason for this is that we will be adding related series of records over the next months. The first will be Militia records 1806 to 1915 from The National Archives’ WO96 series; while it may not have been true in the case of your ancestor, there was movement out of the army into the militia, sometimes after a break of years, following completion of regular service.

In such cases, it is just possible that records might be with the Militia series WO96 rather than in the Chelsea Pensioner WO97.

We also have plans to add further complementary records relating to the 19th century soldier towards the end of this year and over the course of 2011.

In the meantime, I note from the 1861 census that the recorded details of Thomas Woodhouse’s eldest children then living at home – Thomas, born circa 1843/44 in ‘America British Colonies’, Ann, born 1845/46 in ‘Taranca’ (maybe Tauranga?) and David, born 1852/53 in ‘Glasc, Scotland’ (Glasgow?) – certainly indicate a strong possibility that the family could have been travelling with the British Army for at least a decade.

It is also possible, therefore, that his marriage may have taken place outside the jurisdiction of England & Wales (perhaps in Ireland or Canada). Therefore, if you have not done so already, it is worth searching at least the army chaplains’ and regimental records among the overseas BMD indexes on findmypast.co.uk. Please bear in mind that these official records from the General Register Office are known to be incomplete.

Genealogy is sometimes, even often, frustrating and unfortunately there does not seem to be an immediate answer to the difficulties you are encountering at present. The amount of information which is being digitised and made available online, however, is ever-increasing and it is quite possible that what now strikes you as a brick wall could become straightforward to solve in 18 months’ or two years’ time.

Of course, if in the meantime any readers have any ideas, please send them in as usual!’

If you’d like to send your question to Steve, please register or opt to receive newsletters in My Account.

Following Monday’s episode of Who Do You Think You Are? which featured Bruce Forsyth, we’ve found his ancestors in the census records at findmypast.co.uk. We’re sure you found the programme as fascinating as we did - read on to see Bruce’s controversial great-grandfather in our census records.

Bruce Forsyth

In the 1851 census you can see Bruce’s great-grandfather, Joseph Forsyth Johnson, with his mother and grandfather (a florist/nurseryman – not a gardener as Bruce’s cousin said in the programme). They were living in West Ella, Yorkshire:

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On the 1861 census you can see Joseph Forsyth Johnson (employed as a gardener) again living with his wife Elizabeth and her parents in Gilling, Yorkshire:

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The 1881 census shows Elizabeth (working as a housekeeper) with children, living in Wilmslow, Cheshire. Joseph Forsyth Johnson was not with the family:

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Elizabeth appears again on the 1891 census in Tottenham with her children  John (Bruce’s grandfather) and Christina, who wrote the diary Bruce received in the programme. John was working as a warehouse porter and Christina as a kitchen maid. Joseph Forsyth Johnson was not with the family again - as Bruce discovered, he had hot-footed it over to the USA with a younger woman and was enjoying considerable success and prosperity as a landscape gardener.

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We’re looking forward to the rest of the series!

As the 2010 Wimbledon Championships head towards the closing stages, we’ve searched our census records from 1841 to 1911 to find some interesting tennis-themed entries.

In the 1901 census, a male Venus Williams can be found working as a labourer in Hampshire. Venus’ parents were hawkers and lived in a tent/caravan along with Venus’ seven other siblings. Here you can view the census return:

Venus Williams on the 1901 census - click to enlarge

In the 1891 census, a Miss Mary Wimbledon aged 3 can be found in the house of her 22 year old sister Ann Ball at 160 Latimer Road, London. Also present in the house were Ann Ball’s husband Richard and their son James, who was 7 weeks old.

Ann Ball also appears 10 years earlier in the 1881 census when she still carried her maiden name, Wimbledon. She was recorded living with her parents, William and Elizabeth Wimbledon, and her four siblings. The family were living at 14 Thresher Cottages, Kensington, where William worked as a brick maker and Elizabeth as a washer.

A Fred Perry can be found in the 1861 census living with his parents and sister who were tailors in Sawbridgeworth:

Fred Perry on the 1861 census - click to enlarge

Another person by the name of Fred Perry can be found in Lenton, Nottinghamshire as a lace winder, aged 14. Much like the Fred Perry of Wimbledon fame, the name seems to lend itself to those working with fabric!

In the 1841 census we found a rather large Tennis family living in Smith Street in Warwick. The head of the household was William Tennis (40), recorded living with his wife Margaret Tennis (40) and the couple’s three daughters and six sons - creating a household of 11 Tennis’.

Debra Chatfield, our marketing manager (pictured right), said: “These finds outline just a few of the fascinating people who can be found in our census collection. The census records are an amazing resource for researching our own family histories, for providing a snapshot of British social history and for having fun at the same time.”