1901 English Census

After its disastrous opening day with millions of hits an hour at the beginning of the year, which caused our Records Office to close the service, the English 1901 Census is back on-line but not advertising the fact. I have therefore spent several hours - and I shudder to think how many £s! - on tracking our relatives alive at the time - but one or two oddities.

I couldn't find the Foxells - but decided to look for grandpa Harte's spinster sister Florence. Lo and behold - she was staying with William FORCE and his family in The Close at Canterbury Cathedral, where William was a Canon.

Then I couldn't find grandma Harte's brother Emil nor gt grand mother Mary Ann Ormandy [as she was then]. But using * and ? I found Mary Ann ORMENDY and her family - and staying with her was EMILY Russ shown as male and a tailor. Which is interesting as we have the tale that Emil was a Court tailor to an Indian maharajah - and was presumably getting tips from his sister's mother-in-law who was a court dressmaker!

And Charles Russ turns up as a medical student lodging in Paignton; nice to think he might have been visiting his younger brothers Fred Valentine and William, who are shown at Shebbear College - but they are sixty miles apart and across Dartmoor!

Albert show up as an apprentice nurseryman to a Thomas Rigg in Caversham: as a result my supposition that he was apprenticed to a long cloth manufacturer falls - and why did Dean King reckon Albert was a draper?

But the real oddity is Mater's parents: the Census return has "Henry Calloway [sic] living on own means age 83 born Fordingbridge Hants - with wife Elizabeth age 38 born I OF W Coves and daughters Alice age 34 born London St Pancras and May age 13 born West Hampstead". So I ordered a print out to see how many transcription errors there are! Answer - Elizabeth is clearly shown as age 38 - she was 83 so this could be a simple entry error. Given that Henry died seven months later after 6 months of senile paralysis: this could ? also explain the daughter May age 13, who COULD be the youngest previously known daughter Eliza [?Eliza May?] who would have been about 31 in 1901.

Others found: William Center - first husband of Zoe [second wife of Charles Russ] - shown as a Royal Naval Surgeon at Chatham

Robert Sambrook - gt gt grandfather of Allison Sambrook - father of Thomas Sambrook [married Margaret Johanna Muller - daughter of Emily Russ] - with additional children

Kate Ellen Plummer - wife of Ernest Russ/Russell - as a domestic nurse age 15 in Thornbury Gloucestershire [she was later employed by Mater at 27 Clifton Hill - where Ernest met her on his return from the Boer War]

Walter H C Wall - Gerry Fisher's father - and his parents/siblings

Helen Bliss - grandmother of Carolyn Findell - her parents - one born in Australia - and two of her grandparents; also siblings.

Edward Lange - the furrier to whom Charles Russ was apprenticed until Pater's death [when Charles decided he was going to become a doctor] - was living at 25 Alconbury Rd Hackney. Age 62 - born in Germany and a naturalised British subject. Living with him - his wife Rosetta age 56 born in Saffron Walden, son Francis E age 31 born in Clerkenwell and a furrier; son Fred age 25 also born in Clerkenwell and a furrier; and daughter Minnie age 25 born in Clerkenwell and with no shown occupation.

John Evans Sambrook - great great uncle to the youngest generation of Sambrooks and Howses on our tree - age 22 born in Shropshire - was living with his cousin Alfred Davies Sambrook at 85 Nelson Rd Hanley Staffordshire and working as a furniture dealers porter. Alfred - a general carrier carman age 25 - had his mother Sarah, and brother Edward 22 living with him.

David Plummer [I think father of Kate Ellen Plummer wife of Ernest Russ/Russell] lived at 8 Bloomfield Wellow Frome Somerset age 60 born Peasedown Somerset a coal miner hewer. Also in the Census return his wife Alice age 52 born Midsomer Norton, daughter Alice M age 24 born Peasedown; Herbert M age 23 born Peasedown stone mason; Lily S age 19 born Peasedown; Robert J age 17 born Peasedown carpenter & joiner; Louise J age 13 born Peasedodwn and Minnie E age 8 born Peasedown.

Looking for others associated with our family I can find no trace of Charles Muhlberg a Danish furrier and executor/trustee of Pater's estate.

William Schoof the other executor appears at 99 St John St Road Clerkenwell - age 70 born in Flensburg N Germany and a naturalised British subject. The Census enumerator has him as a "retired chwnonater maker" - chronometer clearly [the 1881 Census has him as a "watch springer maker"]

And I could not at first find I M Cable - to whom Ernest Russ was apprenticed - nor his ?son J S, who did the sketches of Ernest on the website: but later - realising that I, T and J all look very similar in mater's Day Book - I found two James Cables: father an architect and surveyor, which clearly fitted as Ernest was a surveyor!

That is all to come from the 1901 Census: the material will appear on the website but not for a while as I have decided to put quotes from 'Lady Day Prodigal' - by Bernard Russ - in the entries and expand the references, as there so few of us who have a copy. This will add to many of the entries and a full upload of the database is going to need great care - to ensure that all the internal links still work and people can go up, down and sideways through the trees!