Created by Julie Goucher, 2021 using Wordscloud

Continuing with the Census, People and Genealogy series – all posts can be found HERE. There is also a Census downloadable to be found HERE.

The page at the start of the census for the parish is not the most descriptive we have seen.

Puttenham 1881 Census – Surrey History Centre – RG11; Piece: 780; Folio: 86; Page: 1

The 1881 Census was the one that began my genealogical and family history journey. It is well documented on this site that I grew up visiting and listening to my great aunts and uncles – the siblings of my maternal Grandparents. The 1881 census shows my Great Grandmother, Annie Prudence Harris.

Puttenham 1881 Census – Surrey History Centre – RG11; Piece: 780; Folio: 86; Page: 7

Annie is marked with the green arrow. I remember being a little 3 year old, snuggling up to Granny, as all of us called her. It was seeing Granny on this census that was just magical to me; the linking of the person that I remembered to the past. In turn, that created the urge to understand, and get to know these people that I shared a genetic link to.

In 1881, Henry Harris is shown a shepherd, he is aged 37 and born in Headley Hampshire. He is head of the household and unsurprisingly, living with his wife, Caroline who is aged 36. Also there are six children, the youngest of which is Annie P who is my Great grandmother.

Henry and Caroline had ten children, the first two daughters were not living with the family and the two children who were born after Granny were not obviously born as yet. The details gathered during this census was the same as the previous one, there would not be a change to the details until the early 20th Century,

The oldest child, Emma Jane was born to Caroline and Henry before they married, but she was part of the family, considered and loved as such. Emma was aged 17 in 1881. She was a domestic servant, living at Home Farm in Shackleford, which is just a few miles from Puttenham. Home Farm was occupied by Henry Plummer and his wife, and their one year old son, and was a farm of 330 acres, employing 13 labourers and two boys.

Daughter Mary who was the second daughter, but third child born to Henry and Caroline was born in Puttenham in 1867. Mary, who was known as Polly was living away from home, although still in the village. She was aged 13 in 1881, employed as a domestic servant in the home of John Shrubb, who was a farmer with 100 acres who employed five men and two boys.