Ancestors lost in the crowd?
New to family history research?
Perhaps these articles on our website may help:
Census 1841 - 1911
Birth, Death and Marriage Registration
The London Gazette
Newspaper archives
Trade Directories
Articles on the History of Essex, Researching your Ancestors,
and British History
Famous people listed in the 1881 British census?
Queen Victoria and her servant John Brown.
Photo National Galleries of Scotland on Flickr NKCR
From Queen Victoria to Bram Stoker.
Researching your family history is enjoyable, but occasionally its interesting to look at the households of the rich and famous. There are several famous people listed in the 1881 census, here is a selection of some of them which are linked to the transcripts of the census on familysearch.org.
Queen Victoria was staying at Windsor Castle with her son Leopold, daughter Beatrice, and the children of her son, Prince Alfred, later Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Also staying as a visitor was Eugénie, Ex-Empress of the French, the widowed wife of Napoleon III.
As you click over several pages you'll see the huge numbers of servants involved in the smooth operation of the royal household. On page 2 appears John Brown listed as the Queens Personal Servant. Brown was a close companion of the Queen following the death of her husband Prince Albert.
There is also a 'table-decker' who supervised the arrangement of her Majesty's table, placing everything in order before dinner was served. The household also had its own telegraphist for the royal household's communications.
In residence at 10, Downing Street was the Prime Minster William Gladstone and his wife Catherine. Again, they are not short of servants.
Winston Churchill was a 6 year old 'scholar' living with his parents at St James's Place, London.
Charles DARWIN, naturalist, with his wife and family in Downe House, Downe, Kent, a year before his death.
Bram STOKER who wrote the horror story Dracula in 1897. At the time of the census he was theatrical manager of the Lyceum Theatre in London.
Finally, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson better known as Lewis Carroll, author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Here described as a student and lecturer, and lodger in the household of the Archdeacon of Oxford at Christ Church College.
If you are interested in finding anymore then try the search at familysearch.org
For a more detailed explanation of the census, how it was taken, and what it contains, visit our page The Census 1841 - 1911.
