Census 1841 - Carter Household

Let's jump back 50 years to the first census for England in 1841. I found the family living in East Dereham in Norfolk. The household consists of Charles Carter (born 1818; yes that is age 23 on the return... I figured it out from later cenus returns in 1851 and 1861), Anna Carter (born 1818), Harriott Carter (born 1816), Charlotte Carter (born 1838) and Charles Carter (born 1840).

So, given that we have two Carter women of similar ages (Anna and Harriott) who was the wife? Charles is 23, Anna is 23 and Harriott is 25. Convention might imply it was the second name listed in the census form which would make it Harriott. But equally this might be because she was the next oldest... Whichever was the wife, the other must have been Charles' sister I would guess.

Notice that Frederick's father, Charles, is only 1 year old.

UPDATE on 30 June 2006: I've made a mistake. Charles (born approximately 1840 and 1 year old) was in fact Frederick's uncle. His father, William Charles, was born a year later in 1842. All of the Charleses got me confused until Lesley pointed out the error.

In 1841 only basic information was gathered. Charles senior's occupation is listed as MS which I think meant "man servant".

Observation: Ann Pease (age 15) is spending the night in the house... and the neighbours are the Pease family. This indicates a close tie. I will come back to this tie in a later post so keep it in mind.