i am a census geek
I love the census. I spend hours reading census images. There's a point to it, as I do family history research for my own family and the families of select friends (those who ask, or those who have much more interesting families than mine!). From 1790 to 1930, in the US and the UK, I can find information about anyone. I find it utterly fascinating to know that in 1850, one of my great-great-great grandfathers owned $50 worth of real estate and $100 worth of personal possessions. Or, in 1920, the majority of men
and women in my hometown were employed at the textile mills or the steelworks. My friends have much more interesting families, such as the one whose family didn't appear in the 1880 census because the husband was off in China (with his family in tow), being the ambassador to that country, from the United States. Another friend, her family managed to elude the census, purposefully, for several decades.
While I could go on and on with stories from the census, such as what specifically was tracked during each census year, in each country, this blog entry was prompted by
a blog entry that mentioned where
Dante Gabriel Rossetti lived -- number 16 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea -- "for roughly ten years after his wife's death in 1862." Being the curious person that I am, I headed over to the 1871 UK Census and in about 5 minutes had the
census page for said Mr. Rossetti. It seems a wee bit understated that his occupation is simply listed as "artist". Uh yeah, you think?
