I can help with all resources marked [YES], copyright permitting.

Census online on this site.

The CRO use a different class number scheme to the PRO/ONS, please consult them before ordering copies to view.

Sunday 6 June PRO HO107/141 to 144

This is published on 35mm microfilm and fiche and available for purchase from the PRO. Some research facilities including the CRO & CSL have a copy.

[YES] Archive CD Books have have published the 1841 Census for Cornwall in (very) high quality facsimile on CDROM (Septemeber 2003). This includes a surname and placename index supplied by the CFHS.

Images on CD-ROM by [Off Site]British Data Archive (part of S & N Genealogy), Salisbury and includes street and area indexes. It is now available on CD-ROM from [Off Site]Stepping Stones, York. Note that this may be the same version as Stepping Stones have been taken over by S & N.

The [Off Site]CFHS report that they have transcribed, checked and entered on the database all of this census. None has been published in book form but the population counts per parish are noted below.

There was a project, started in 2000 and completed in 2004, to transcribe the whole of the Cornwall 1841 census for free internet access. See the [Off Site]Cornwall Online Census Project for more information. It is also available in the Official [Off Site]FreeCEN database.

The 1841 census is hideously complex so this section is worth reading first. You have to consider how the census was taken.

Ever since 1837 the county had been divided up into Registration Districts. These were originally called Superintendant Registrar’s Districts. As an example, Sancreed was in Penzance district. These were further subdivided into Registrar’s Districts. There were seven in Penzance SRD—Penzance, St. Buryan, Uny Lelant, Ludgvan, St. Ives, Marazion and St. Just in Penwith. These were further divided down into Parishes—in 1841 these were ecclesiastical parishes, but later they became civil parishes. We have come across some bits of the 1841 where they separated out parts of a parish that were inside a borough and parts that were not. They really didn't know what they were doing. Continuing the example, St. Just RD had three parishes—St. Just in Penwith, Sancreed and Morvah. Each parish was divided into Enumerator’s Districts (more than one if it was big enough) and an Enumerator appointed. The EDs were numbered in Registration Districts so St. Just was 1 to 10, Sancreed 11 to 13. Here it gets complicated again because Morvah was forgotten so it used the first 17 pages from ED 1. I said they didn't know what they were doing.

Now the Enumerators went out and distributed their Schedules. These were single pages with some instructions (I would really like to see a copy if any one knows where one is, they were not preserved). In 1851 onwards they were numbered but not in 1841. They were supposed to be filled in on the day after the night of the census by the householder. Later they were collected up by the Enumerator (who no doubt, helped some people fill them in). He took them all home and copied them into the Enumerator’s booklet. Some enumerators made a complete horlicks of this. The booklet had 20, 40 or 60 numbered Pages depending on the size of the patch plus the unnumbered leader and trailer pages. These were sent in and were checked, counted and otherwise mined for statistics, usually marking the sheet with a thick stub of a pencil.

For some reason unaccountable to man or beast, when the Enumerator’s booklets were collected up for the Public Record Office they decided to do it by the old feudal Hundred. Sancreed was in the Hundred of Penwith. This Hundred did not quite tally with the Superintendent’s RD and Penwith Hundred also included most of Redruth SRD and parts of Helston SRD as well. They then sorted the parishes (very) vaguely into alphabetical order within the Hundred. Then the Enumerators booklets were bound into groups of between 1 and 6 (presumably for the benefit of handling on the shelves and these are called Books. Each leaf of paper was stamped with Folio numbers at the top right had corner of the right hand page when opened (a folio is a leaf of paper so the number refers to the front and back of that leaf) The numbers were consecutive from one right the way though the book ignoring ED boundaries. Not all the folios survived but the most vulnerable were the first and last of each ED so presumably the books were not bound until quite late. I suppose that a certain number of books would fit onto a shelf, so each shelf was given a Piece number. These piece numbers were also used for the films.

So back to the example

On the FreeCEN site they use the ED number because the transcription was originally based on 1891 which used them more sensibly. However they are not a great deal of use for 1841. They also highlight the Parish name which is much more useful.

This sort of reference is useful for the PRO Films and for ACDB CDs. Class HO107, Hundred Penwith, Piece 144, Book 14, Folio 4.

This sort of reference is useful for the County RO and for Fiche. SRD Penzance, RD St. Just in Penwith, Parish Sancreed, ED 11, Page 1.

Two totally independent ways of counting. And even then you have to count the schedules down the page because they were not numbered.

Hundred of Penwith, Superintendent Registrar’s District of Penzance

See [Off Site]COCP for full transcript.

HO107/141 [LDS 241263]
Camborne (SRD Redruth/RD Camborne HO107/141/1–5 ED 1–17)
Crowan (SRD Helston/RD Crowan HO107/141/6–8 ED1–12)
Registrar’s District of St. Buryan
St. Buryan [YES] HO107/141/9 full transcript on this site ED 1–5. Note that the folio numbers 42 & 43 are interchanged in ED 4. The pages are in the correct order. The CFHS database reports 1911 people.
HO107/142 [LDS 241264]
Registrar’s District of Penzance
Gulval [YES] HO107/142/1 full transcript on this site ED 24–27. The CFHS database reports 1937 people.
Gwinear (SRD Redruth/RD Phillack HO107/142/2–3 ED 5–8)
Gwithian (SRD Redruth/RD Phillack HO107/142/4 ED9–10)
Illogan (SRD Redruth/RD Illogan HO107/142/5–9 ED 1–14)
Registrar’s District of Uny Lelant
Uny Lelant [YES] HO107/142/10 full transcript on this site ED 6–9. The CFHS database reports 1998 people.
Registrar’s District of Uny Lelant
Ludgvan [YES] HO107/142/11 ED 10–13 HO107/142/12 ED 14–16 full transcripts on this site. The CFHS database reports 3185 people.
HO107/143 [LDS 241265]
Registrar’s District of Penzance
Madron (Penzance) [YES] HO107/143/1 ED 1–3 HO107/143/2 ED 4–6 HO107/143/3 ED 7–9 HO107/143/4 ED 10–12 & Borough Gaol full transcripts on this site. The CFHS database reports 9459 people plus 13 in the Gaol.
Registrar’s District of Penzance
Madron [YES] HO107/143/5 ED 13–14 HO107/143/6 ED 15–16 HO107/143/7 Penzance Union Workhouse full transcripts on this site. The CFHS database reports 1439 people plus 234 in the Workhouse.
Registrar’s District of St. Just in Penwith
Morvah [YES] HO107/143/8 full transcript on this site ED 1 (first 17 pages only). The CFHS database reports 407 people.
Registrar’s District of Penzance
Paul [YES] HO107/143/9 ED 17–19 HO107/143/10 ED 20–23 full transcripts on this site. The CFHS database reports 4664 people.
Registrar’s District of Marazion
Perranuthnoe HO107/143/11 ED 5–8
Phillack (SRD Redruth/RD Phillack HO107/143/12–13 ED 1–4)
Redruth (SRD Redruth/RD Redruth HO107/143/14–17 ED 1–13)
[YES] HO107/144 [LDS 241266]
Registrar’s District of Uny Lelant
St. Erth HO107/144/1 (ED 1–5)
Registrar’s District of Marazion
St. Hilary HO107/144/2 (ED 1–3) HO107/144/3 (ED 9–12) HO107/144/4 (ED 7 & 8 detatched) Note that the latter two sections have the headers reversed
Registrar’s District of St. Ives
St. Ives (the fiches are marked St. Yves) [YES] HO107/144/5 ED 1–4, HO107/144/6 ED 5–7, HO107/144/7 ED 8–10 full transcripts on this site. The CFHS database reports 5653 people.
Registrar’s District of St. Just in Penwith
St. Just in Penwith [YES] HO107/144/8 ED 1–3, HO107/144/9 ED 4–6, HO107/144/10 ED 7–8, HO107/144/11 ED 9–10 full transcripts on this site. Note that the first 17 pages of ED 1 were used for Morvah. The CFHS database reports 7045 people.
Registrar’s District of St. Buryan
St. Levan [YES] HO107/144/12 full transcript on this site ED 6–7. The CFHS database reports 531 people.
Registrar’s District of Marazion (on the same fiche as St. Levan)
St. Michael’s Mount HO107/144/13 (ED4)
Registrar’s District of St. Just in Penwith
Sancreed [YES] HO107/144/14 full transcript on this site ED 11–13. The CFHS database reports 1250 people.
Registrar’s District of St. Buryan
Sennen [YES] HO107/144/15 full transcript on this site ED 8–9. Another transcript can be found at the [Off Site] Sennen OPC Website. The CFHS database reports 659 people.
Registrar’s District of St. Ives
Towednack [YES] HO107/144/16 full transcript on this site ED 11–13. The CFHS database reports 967 people.
Registrar’s District of St. Ives
Zennor [YES] HO107/144/17 full transcript on this site ED 14–17. The CFHS database reports 1025 people.

Note that the ED numbers are by Registrar’s (Sub) District.

See the [Off Site]Cornwall Online Census Project for a full transcript; also the Official [Off Site]FreeCEN online database.