1871 Census

Numbered in the order of visitation by the enumerator

• Column 1 – A count of the vessels
• Column 2 – A count of the shanties
• Column 3 – A count of the houses in construction
• Column 4 – A count of the house uninhabited
• Column 5 – A count of the houses inhabited
• Column 6 – A count of the family or household

Personal details

• Column 7 – Names (last name, first name)
• Column 8 – Sex
• Column 9 – Age at last birthday (for those under one year of age, fractions were used, such as 4/12 for four months)
• Column 10 – Born within last twelve months (month of birth for infants whose names were entered in column 7 and who were still alive)
• Column 11 – Country or province of birth
• Column 12 – Religion
• Column 13 – Origin
• Column 14 – Profession, occupation, or trade (sons following their fathers in occupation/profession, and where associated with them, the same description was included; for women, unless they had a definite occupation outside their household, the column was marked with a dash)
• Column 15 – Married or widowed
• Column 16 – Married within the last twelve months (the month of marriage was recorded under the husband’s name with ditto marks (‘’) used for the wife)

Instruction

• Column 17 – Going to school
• Column 18 – Over 20 years of age and unable to read
• Column 19 – Over 20 years of age and unable to write

Infirmities -- the infirmity would have needed to reach the stage of incapacity to be noted

• Column 20 – Deaf and dumb
• Column 21 – Blind
• Column 22 – Unsound mind
• Column 23 – Dates of operations and remarks (comments were rare and used only for very special cases; this is also where the enumerator entered the day’s date)