1901 and 1911 Census Number of Rooms in House

hugedinosaur · 09-12-2018 4:09pm #1

In the column "No. of rooms occupied by each family" does this mean the total number of rooms in the house, or just the number of bedrooms.

For example in 1901 in a house with 7 people in the family, a widowed father aged 60 as head of family, two daughters aged 17 and 16, three sons aged 15, 12 and 10, and an aunt aged 85, the column for "Rooms" shows "2" which means 2, 3 or 4 rooms, and the column for "No. of rooms occupied by each family" shows 3.

For the same house in 1911, with 3 people in the family, the son who was 15 in 1901, was now the head of family, aged 26, living with his sister aged 28, and also a male farm servant, aged 68, the form shows the same figures; 2, 3 or 4 rooms in the house, and the No of rooms occupied by each family is 3.

Was the kitchen counted as one of the rooms?
Does it mean that the total number of rooms in the house was 3, or could it be that there were three bedrooms plus a kitchen?

srmf5 · 09-12-2018 7:28pm

The number of rooms would have included the kitchen so a three room house likely had two bedrooms and a kitchen.

My mum was in a three room house when she was born before they got an extension when she was about 7. They were a family with three children and that was in the 1960s so not a very long time ago.

tabbey · 09-12-2018 11:35pm

The figure in column 8 is a code, calculated with walls roof etc, to help classify the house:

1 = 1 room.
2= 2,3 or 4 rooms
3= 5 or 6 rooms
4= 7,8 or 9 rooms and so on.

You can ignore column 8 from a practical point of view.

column 14 is the actual number of rooms occupied by the household.

As for what constitutes a room, we do not have the instructions, as form B is only filled by the enumerator, so not included in the instructions on the back of form A.
However a kitchen is usually a major room in most houses.

In rural Ireland, a three room house was usually a living room in the centre, with a bedroom at each end. The living room was kitchen, dining room and sitting room all in one, with a fireplace which was used for cooking, water heating and heating the house. The fire was at one side of the room, so the bedroom at this end was warmer than the further bedroom, the stone wall acting as a primitive storage heater.

kildarejohn · 10-12-2018 3:40pm

tabbey wrote: »

As for what constitutes a room, we do not have the instructions, as form B is only filled by the enumerator, so not included in the instructions on the back of form A.
However a kitchen is usually a major room in most houses.

From a few houses I have checked out relating to my ancestors, it seems that the "no. of rooms" only included bedrooms, kitchen, parlour/living room. It looks like they did not count hallways, sculleries, pantries etc. In my grandparents house one room was a stable/byre, but this was not counted in the no. of rooms for the census.

pinkypinky · 10-12-2018 4:27pm

The census definitions today do not include bathrooms or hallways either, but I have always understood the older censuses as "3 rooms" to mean that the family had 3 rooms, particularly in shared houses. Remember very few houses would have bathrooms at that stage.

tabbey · 11-12-2018 1:47pm

kildarejohn wrote: »

In my grandparents house one room was a stable/byre, but this was not counted in the no. of rooms for the census.

Stables and byres (cow houses) were recorded on form B2 - Outhouses and Farmsteadings.

kildarejohn · 12-12-2018 10:20am

tabbey wrote: »

Stables and byres (cow houses) were recorded on form B2 - Outhouses and Farmsteadings.

Yes, but for the house I am talking about, no Outhouses were recorded. The stable was not an outbuilding, but a room which was part of the house itself - (as per Myles na gCopaleens story of the pigs)

1901 and 1911 Census Number of Rooms in House

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