Genealogy Chat

Heather, Thankyou for that input and for finding out for us. Thats the great thing about this site - if someone doesn't know themselves, they usually know somebody who does! Jay

Hi there, well the man who knows (the brilliant Geoff Lowe who set up and runs the Norfolk Transcription archives) has replied as follows: If you look at any census return you'll see lots of these numbers - often used to provide a numerical classification of different occupations; there are also ages crossed through, types of occupation in brackets (or in a different handwriting) written after the occupation recorded by the enumerator. These are all marks made at the office of the Registrar General by clerks analysing the data. Whereas we now have computers to work through such data, in the old days, it was down to lots of men in an office, working their way through the census and physically extracting data, and making marks (often to simply act as a reminder), as they did so. Without actually seeing the page in question I cannot be 100% sure that this is the case for the page to which you refer, but I'll go so far as to say that I'm 99.9% sure that this is the explanation in this case.

I had a feeling these sort of 'codes' were put in by the clerks to help analyse the data. I think each type of work was classified by a number - not sure though. Anne

Nell These labourers were paid by the day, as opposed to piece - work or weekly. It was usually applied to seasonal work. Elaine x.

I dont know, but I think I know a man who would. Will let you know if I get the info.

Janet OK, if I find out first I'll let you know and perhaps you can do the same for me. But its the other way around, isn't it. If he was working 1 day out of 7 the 1 would be on top. nell

Yes Nell, I've coma across it in villages only, but don't know what it means. I wondered if it was something to do with being employed on a daily basis, as the ones I've encountered were something like 3 over 7 or 1 over 7. The employment suggested that it was casual or temporary work like ditch digger, dredger, not my usual Ag Labs. Like you, I'd love to know what it means! Jay

I don't know what it means, but they're all 7/1 I've never seen anything like it.

Looking on 1901 census at Limpenhoe, Norfolk village, I found my great-grandfather and his family, together with others. The ones that are marsh labourers all appear to have a fraction - in some cases 7 over 1 and in others 7 over 10 in the occupation column. Any ideas? Source information: RG13/1855 Folio: 70 Page: 5 Registration district: Blofield Sub-registration district: South Walsham ED, institution, or vessel: 5 nell

Anyone any idea what this is?