VPRS 85 1841 Census Returns - Port Phillip District (Photocopies of Original Records Held at State Records, New South Wales)

Full description

This series consists of photocopies of census returns submitted from the Port Phillip District during the 1841 Census conducted by the Colony of New South Wales.

It is unknown when these photocopies were created have been kept in the PROV Collections since at least 1982. The original documents are held by State Records, New South Wales which in turn has published these in microfilm form.

In this census, a return was required that identified the number, but not the names, of all persons resident in a household.

The return was required to be completed by either the householder, employer of servants or person in charge. The first page of the return identifies:

- the name of the person who completed the return
- the place of residence. The street name and number was required to be included if the residence was located within a town, and
- questions about the form of the dwelling, whether construction of the dwelling had been completed and the number of people resident there.

The remaining pages required the complier to record information about the age, sex, religion, occupation, condition (whether free settler, convict, ticket of leave holder etc) and trade or calling. For most of these subjects the compiler was required only to enter a number representing the number of persons in the household against the options given for that subjects.