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It seems that crime writer Agatha Christie, author of the Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot detective novels, was somewhat of a mystery woman herself. One eagle-eyed findmypast.co.uk customer, Ian Plimmer, dropped us a line this week to tell us that she actually appears twice in the 1911 census.

Christie, who was born Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller 120 years ago this month, appears at the home of her grandmother in Ealing, Middlesex on the night the census was taken. The image below shows her listed as Agatha M. C. Miller, aged 20, born in Torquay, Devon.

Agatha Christie in Ealing in the 1911 census - click to enlarge

However, she was also recorded around 200 miles away, living with her mother in Torquay. This census return lists her as Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller, with her age and place of birth matching the previous record. In the Nationality column on the right of the form, Agatha’s mother noted that her father was American.

Agatha Christie in Torquay in the 1911 census - click to enlarge

We’ve spotted a few examples of people being listed twice in the 1911 census like Agatha Christie was – were any of your own ancestors recorded twice?

For the first time, the government included a section on ‘fertility in marriage’ in the 1911 census.

The decreasing birth rate, the amount of people emigrating and the general poor health of the population were causing the government concern. It wanted to find out what potential there was for the future workforce as this would be essential to develop Britain’s industrial standing.

The following are some of the trends in fertility and marriage from the 1911 census taken from Changing Family Size in England and Wales, Place, Class and Demography, 1891-1911 by Eilidh Garrett, Alice Reid, Kevin Schürer and Simon Szreter and published by Cambridge University Press.

Marriage trends

The percentage of women marrying in 1911 was falling and the age at marriage was increasing. Interestingly, eight per cent of first-time brides in 1911 were pregnant before they got married and illegitimacy was in decline due to pressure for couples to marry when the pregnancy was apparent.

Spousal co-residency

The 1911 census shows that 7.4% of married women weren’t residing with their husbands on census night compared to 5.2% of men. Potential reasons for this include men being at sea or in the army, and women who had children illegitimately pretending that their non-existent husband was away.

Marriage duration

Years of marriage duration tended to be inaccurate in long-term marriages and marriages of less than a year which could be rounded up to a year (especially when the child of these marriages was illegitimate).

Exaggeration of length of marriage

Despite the fact that the heading of the column on the census clearly stated that marriages of less than a year should be recorded as ‘under one’, there was a shortfall of these marriages recorded. This could have been because couples tended to record the length of their marriage by their next anniversary rather than the previous. The Registrar-General, however, suggested that people were sometimes deliberately generous with regard to the length of their marriage to hide illegitimate births and pre-nuptial pregnancy.

Infant mortality

Up to 20% of conceptions resulted in miscarriages and infant mortality was generally high, which paints a grim picture of women trying to bring up healthy children. Perhaps unsurprisingly, infant mortality was less common in households with more rooms and in those with a servant. Infant mortality increased when women had children when they were younger and at shorter intervals.

This information adds a definite level of colour to the census and helps to build the picture of how life was in 1911.

It seems many of our ancestors were animal lovers, even going so far as to record their pets on their 1911 census returns. Some of our customers have been unearthing some rather touching records such as that of Mr and Mrs Arthur John Delve in Smethwick who recorded their pet dog, Biddy at the bottom of their household form. Biddy was described as the couple’s “faithful Irish Terrier Bitch, Magnificent Watch, a demon on Cats and Vermin, age 11 years”.

Biddy in the 1911 census - please click to enlarge

Inclusions like this one emphasise just how special the 1911 census is, being the first census for which householders’ original census returns have survived. Had the household schedules been destroyed like those of the 1841 – 1901 censuses, we would never have seen that the Delves even owned a dog, let alone that she was clearly considered one of the family. The inclusion would certainly have been lost in the census enumerator’s summary. Census returns like the one above can provide incredible insights into our ancestors’ personalities which allow us to begin building a much clearer picture of who they really were.

Do let us know if you’ve found any examples of pets in the 1911 census. You can do so by commenting on this post or by writing on our facebook wall.

Findmypast’s Amy is taking her own journey back into her family’s past. Read on for her latest discoveries…

Now that I know my great-grandparents were alive, I can search to see if I can find them in the recently released 1911 census. I’ll take my great-grandmother Ada Maria Howard as an example to demonstrate how to find an ancestor.

I’ve selected the 1911 person search from findmypast’s census collection and have entered basic information to begin with, following the findmypast rule of thumb of ‘less is more’. I’ve entered Ada in the first name field (leaving the variants box ticked so that the search includes nicknames, middle names and initials) and Howard in the surname field.

Initial search - please click to enlarge

This search returned 314 results, meaning there were 314 Ada Howards living in England and Wales in 1911. Fortunately, I have a bit more information about my great-grandmother courtesy of her marriage certificate (featured in the post below) so was able to narrow these results down a bit.

I selected ‘redefine current search’ and added a birth year to the search terms. Ada was recorded as being 23 years old at the time of her marriage in 1926, so I’ve entered 1903 as the birth year. The search defaults to include births two years either side of 1903, a really handy tactic to avoid any age inaccuracies in the census. It’s not unusual to see a year or two shaved off of or added to ancestors’ ages in census returns – be it down to vanity, an attempt to conceal an illegitimate child or even simply that the head of household couldn’t recall the exact ages of his/her children.

Redefined search - please click to enlarge

By adding this rough date of birth, I managed to narrow the list of results down to just 27 possibilities. However, Ada’s marriage certificate had provided me with another handy bit of information – her father’s name, Ernest. So I selected ‘redefine current search’ again and then switched to ‘advanced search’ via the tabs at the top of the search screen (see below). Here I entered ‘Ernest Howard’ in the ‘other persons living in the same household’ search field.

Advanced search - please click to enlarge

This time, my search returned just three results. One of these, the top result in the image below, looked like a clear winner as this Ada Howard was living in Hertfordshire in 1911 – the same county my great-grandmother was married in 15 years later. In addition, the marriage certificate had informed me that Ada’s middle name was Maria – not matching the middle names of either of the other two search results.

Search results - please click to enlarge

To confirm that this was indeed the right Ada, I viewed the transcript – a typewritten version of the original census page.

1911 census transcript - please click to enlarge

You can see that the transcript showed me exactly what I had hoped it would; Ada Howard living as the daughter of Ernest Howard, a Chimney Sweep. If you look at the bottom of the transcript, you can also see that the address the family were living at in 1911 exactly matches that recorded on my great-grandmother’s marriage certificate – Chapel End, Buntingford. I then decided to view the original census image.

Original 1911 census image - please click to enlarge

The 1911 census is the first from which original householder schedules have survived – the other surviving censuses from 1841 to 1901 consist of the census enumerators’ summary books. This means that the 1911 census return you can see above was actually completed by my great-great-grandfather Ernest Howard – you can see his signature at the bottom right of the page. Next to Ernest’s signature, we are also told exactly how many rooms (rooms, not bedrooms!) their home had. In the Howard family’s case, there were seven people living in just four rooms.

The 1911 census return has also provided me with brand new information about Ada’s mother, my great-great-grandmother. Her name is a bit tricky to read on the census return, however it has been recorded as ‘Merey’ in the transcript. The census form also informs me that she was 40 years old in 1911 and had been married to 45-year-old Ernest for 22 years. These handy bits of information will enable me to search the BMD indexes once again, this time for my great-great-grandparents’ marriage and births. In addition, if I look over to the right of the census form, I can actually see where Ernest and Merey were both born.

My 1911 search has provided one final bit of rather shocking information. In 1911, my great-great-grandmother had given birth to an impressive 12 children but sadly only half of these had survived. The number six has been listed in the census form’s ninth column, recording the number of ‘children who have died’. The 1911 census return has provided me with a lot of new information about my family, however the most striking point is just how precarious my great-grandmother’s existence must have been!

Follow Amy’s research into her past on her blog.

The General Register Office has just introduced new charges for ordering birth, marriage and death certificates which will take effect from Tuesday 6th April 2010. For more information view the GRO’s press release.

This weekend saw the fourth Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE exhibition at Kensington Olympia. Hundreds of people visited the findmypast shop and kept our Edwardian shopkeepers busy selling vouchers and giving out free Family History Starter Packs.

The findmypast tram proved a popular feature with all the departures pulling a large crowd. Our clippies gave engaging and informative talks throughout the weekend which described in detail how to use findmypast when researching your family history. Here you can see the journey in action:

Our research bay was busy all weekend, with members of the findmypast team answering queries and helping people with their research. Mary, who uses findmypast.co.uk in her research, came to the exhibition with the hope of overcoming a problem. We helped Mary to track down her maternal great-great grandmother who was proving elusive to trace. Our experts also found Mary’s great-great grandmother’s parents, which meant that she now has new avenues of research to explore.

The event was hugely successful and we received lots of valuable feedback about our stand and our website. We’d like to thank everyone who visited our shop, tram and research bay and hope you enjoyed the event as much as we did.

Findmypast.co.uk has just carried out a survey which has revealed that young Brits shy away from jobs that require hard graft and instead, one in six 18-24 year olds aspire to become a famous singer, actor or member of a band.

There has never been such a stark contrast between the career choices of today’s young people when compared to the manual jobs of their ancestors. In the 1911 census some of the most popular occupations recorded include working in domestic service, agriculture, mining, building and the cotton industry. In contrast, less than 1% of young Brits in the 21st century would like to have a manual job such as a builder or plumber.

Here you can see a 1911 census return for singer Tom Jones’ maternal grandparents, Albert Rees and Ada Jones, who were in the coal-mining industry. Jones is Tom’s stage rather than birth surname.

Click to enlarge

Debra Chatfield

Our marketing manager, Debra Chatfield (pictured right), says: “It seems the growing obsession with celebrity has really impacted on young people’s career choices these days, as our study reveals how the more non-traditional jobs now come high up on the wish-list.

“Times have certainly changed when it comes to young people’s career choices. A look at the 1911 census provides a fascinating insight into the professions of our ancestors and you can really see how times have dramatically changed. On the other hand, in some cases, it can be interesting to see how some families have carried the same profession down through the family tree to the modern day. In our recent study it was revealed that, worryingly, a fifth (22%) of those aged 18-24 years do not know what their ancestors did for a living.”

Find out what your ancestors did in our complete census records from 1841 to 1911.

The UK’s biggest family history event returns to London’s Olympia on 26-28 February 2010 for its fourth fascinating year and findmypast.co.uk will be there. Come and visit our stand where you can take your free seat on the findmypast.co.uk ‘tram’. There will be several ‘departures’ every day, each featuring a talk on how to start your journey into the past. There’s no need to book, just check the ‘departures board’ when you arrive to choose the time that suits you.

You can also pick up some fantastic deals from our Edwardian shopkeeper in the 1911 shop. Offers include £25-worth of PayAsYouGo vouchers for £19.99, a three month subscription for £45 instead of £50 and a 12 month subscription for £135 instead of £150. These subscriptions include access to the 1911 census records as well as all the other great features we have to offer. When you buy any voucher worth £9.99 or more you’ll get a Family History Starter Pack with a free copy of our new video tutorials, designed to help you get the most out of our site.

There will be free access to the findmypast.co.uk website in our research bay so come along and get stuck into your research - you can meet the findmypast.co.uk team and pick their brains for tips!

We look forward to seeing you there.

Article by Jayne Shrimpton, first published in Family Tree Magazine as Followers of Fashion.

Knowing what people looked like at a given point in time helps us to form a picture of that era. The way in which past generations dressed also reflected their lifestyles and the world they inhabited. So discovering how ancestors recorded on the 1911 census appeared then offers today’s researchers both a useful visual reference point and a fascinating glimpse into life nearly a century ago.

Towards the end of the Edwardian era, in 1908, there began a radical transformation of women’s fashions - an abandonment of exaggerated curves and fussy decoration in favour of a more natural, streamlined shape and subtler detailing. The new style, characterised by a high waistline, a slender body and straight skirts ending around ankle level, was well established by 1911 and is now regarded as symbolising the start of ‘modern’ fashion. The revolutionary silhouette, which effectively liberated the female body, was largely the creation of the pioneering Parisian couturier, Paul Poiret.

High fashion

The most extreme styles were still reserved for a privileged minority - those with the resources and leisure time. Until WWI, when etiquette began to relax, the social élite continued to dress ‘correctly’ for different occasions and women might change their clothing five or six times a day. Tailored jackets or ‘pelisse’ coats and narrow ‘hobble’ skirts, complemented by enormous hats crowned with sweeping ostrich and osprey plumes, provided sleek costumes for shopping or visiting. For tea parties, garden parties, race meetings and other events, graceful, high-waisted afternoon frocks, secured with silk sashes and draped asymmetrically or layered, tunic-style, were worn with long gloves. The ultimate extravagance was lavish evening attire for the theatre, balls, soirées and dinner parties - trained, embroidered and fringed gowns in vibrant silk, tulle and chiffon, worn with stoles, fur-trimmed cloaks and feathered turbans and bandeaux, exotic creations deriving from Poiret’s classical and oriental-inspired designs.

Popular dress

The busy working woman in 1911 needed respectable but practical clothing for everyday wear and better garments for weekends - a modified version of high fashion. The smart tailor-made outfit was the mainstay of the female wardrobe and comprised an ankle-length skirt and long, matching jacket. Active women adapted the restricting ‘hobble’ shape and wore their skirts at least the width of a stride, extra fullness created by gores and pleats. Different blouses offered variety, either plain, or with neat tucks, round necklines or collars, including a masculine-style shirt and tie version, popular with younger women; dressier blouses featured a higher neckline, lace collars or panels, or were layered over a chemisette. More formal one-piece dresses, of different fabrics and colours to suit the season or occasion, emphasised the fashionable high waistline. Hair was drawn up above a parting into wide, full waves or soft curls above the temples. Heads were covered outdoors and even ordinary hats were broad-brimmed and decorated with flowers and ribbons. Gloves, ‘modern’ handbags on long cords and one-inch heeled buttoned boots or shoes ornamented with bows or buckles were standard accessories. The suffragettes, who were becoming more active at this time, adopted smart, stylish but conventional clothing, presenting a ‘safe’ public image, which aimed to discourage adverse criticism and add integrity to their cause.

Pursuing fashion

In 1911, women’s clothing was not yet mass-produced and relatively little was available ready-made, mainly small articles like underwear and accessories. Garments requiring an accurate fit were usually made-to-measure. Wealthy ladies travelled to Paris visiting couturiers like Worth, Paquin, Doucet or Poiret, or patronised London fashion houses such as Redfern, or Lucile, whose tall, slender mannequins demonstrated their latest ‘models’ to clients in luxurious showrooms. These and other exalted designer-dressmakers, called Court dressmakers, dressed the upper classes, while large stores offered well-heeled customers bespoke garments made in their own workrooms. Some department stores were providing improved facilities for a wider public, like Selfridges (established 1909), which encouraged customers to browse freely, and opened the first bargain basement in a British store. At the bottom end of the market, the trade in secondhand clothes flourished. Many women used small dressmaking establishments or individual dressmakers who made clothes to order, or otherwise made their own and their families’ garments at home. Following fashion dictated from above was challenging for the average woman, but interest in fashion was growing. The latest trends were reported in quality ladies’ magazines such as The Queen and circulated through popular magazines like Weldon’s Ladies’ Journal and Myra’s Journal of Dress and Fashion, both of which supplied patterns for home dressmaking. Regular newspapers like The Illustrated London News were also now publishing illustrated fashion articles, as well as advertisements, reaching a wider audience.

Women’s sportswear

Women, especially amongst the upper and middle classes, were becoming more physically active and enjoyed outdoor activities including walking, cycling, motoring, horse-riding, tennis, croquet and golf. Energetic sports demanded special garments and these were evolving rapidly. Lady motorists wore stylish weather-proof coats, chiffon motor veils, oilskin motor hoods, and goggles. For golf, in 1909, a knitted sports coat was introduced, a long, loose cardigan, often belted, and this was increasingly worn for casual wear. For tennis either a white shirt-blouse and white panelled skirt, or a simple white dress were usual, their hemlines about two inches off the ground. In horse-riding, women were beginning to sit astride, after centuries of riding side-saddle, and the new posture required either divided skirts (wide culottes) or breeches and a long coat. Cycling was very popular and for this women wore a skirt with an inverted centre-back pleat, or knickerbockers or divided skirts.

Improved underwear

In 1911, undergarments still provided support but were becoming simpler and more comfortable under sporting and aesthetic influences. To shape the fashionable line from c1908, there developed a style of corset which began lower down, under the bust, and extended over the hips. Only lightly-boned, the new, longer corset did not constrict or exaggerate but produced a smooth line while allowing considerably more freedom of movement. In America, where the tango dance craze arrived in 1911, elastic dance and sports corsets were also introduced. The newly-exposed bust now inspired early forms of brassiere - the flimsy bust bodice or bust shaper. With the narrowing of skirts, layers of frilled petticoats were replaced with one simple petticoat. Knee-length knickers were made increasingly with a closed crotch, preferable for wear with knickerbockers and divided skirts.

Everyday male fashions

Men’s clothing was essentially static from c1900 until after WW1. The three-piece lounge suit was standard wear for work, at weekends, and for special occasions amongst the lower and middling classes. In 1911, all suit pieces usually matched and were generally slim-fitting. Single or double-breasted jackets had two flapped hip pockets, ticket and breast pockets and were worn to thigh-length. Open jackets exposed the waistcoat and the looped watch chain was a common sight. Trousers were typically narrow and sometimes featured turn-ups and centre creases; being rather short, they revealed the wearer’s laced leather boots, or shoes, still a recent innovation but becoming more common. Men’s shirts were heavily-starched but neckwear had already attained today’s arrangement - a turned-down shirt collar and a long, knotted tie. The clean-cut, modern image was enhanced by a growing preference for less facial hair: men sometimes wore a small moustache but the trend amongst younger men was to go clean shaven. Hair was short and heads were covered in public, the cloth cap being usual amongst working men. Smarter options were the stiff bowler hat or the new felt Homburg hat, popularised by Edward VII.

Men’s tailoring and occasion wear

The upper classes had not condescended to wearing ‘off-the-peg’ clothing by 1911 and preferred suits individually made by bespoke tailors. They generally presented a more traditional image, favouring conservative frock coats and top hats for weddings and other social events, and either the frock coat or sloping morning coat for professional and business wear. Formal evening occasions demanded full evening dress - a tail coat, white waistcoat and white neck tie. For the masses, a wide range of reasonably-priced, ready-made lounge suits were available and lightweight summer suits were sometimes teamed with straw boaters. Striped or brightly-coloured flannel blazers, worn with flannel trousers, were popular for casual town or country dress, but waistcoats were worn, whatever the weather, and no respectable man appeared publicly in shirt sleeves. However, manual workers, including builders, miners and farm labourers, habitually worked without jackets and waistcoats, replacing the tie with a neck handkerchief or scarf. Some workmen wore knitted jerseys and these were also commonly worn for outdoor activities like cycling and boating. Men enjoyed various sports in 1911, and for most rural pursuits from shooting to golf, wore knickerbockers with the pleated, belted ‘Norfolk’ jacket. Organised team sports like football, rugby and cricket were well-established and players were provided with the club’s official kit.

Babies and children

Babies in 1911 still wore several layers, including flannel petticoats for warmth and often a ‘binder’ or ‘roller’, a strip of flannel or stout cotton wound around the midriff to flatten the navel and support the lower back and stomach. White or cream baby gowns could be plain or elaborate, according to occasion and circumstances. Bibs were used and sometimes bore a woven or embroidered slogan like ‘Our Pet’ or ‘Don’t talk too loud’! Traditionally, male infants wore petticoats until around the age of four, although this practice was declining. Young boys progressed to woollen knickerbocker suits - miniature lounge jackets or ‘Norfolk’ jackets worn with a starched white Eton collar, or tunics with a sailor collar, teamed with gathered knickerbockers or, more commonly, open shorts. Shorts often showed the knee by 1911, and were accompanied by black woollen stockings or shorter socks. Following a growing recognition that little boys needed comfortable play clothes, some were beginning to wear stretchy knitted jerseys with shorts, a ‘progressive’ style that became increasingly popular. For girls, from 1908, the Liberty Bodice, a soft, knitted-cotton, front-buttoning bodice, offered respite from rigid corsets, while Chilprufe (registered in 1911) represented a new era in comfortable children’s underwear. Loose smock dresses were worn by young girls for school and play, often with protective pinafores, and more tailored, belted garments for best. Schoolwear was gradually acquiring a more uniform look for older girls at this time with shirts and ties worn with jackets and calf-length skirts, or with gymslips, which were introduced for gymnastics but were now becoming more widely accepted for regular schoolwear.

Jayne Shrimpton - professional dress historian and picture specialist: consultant, writer and lecturer www.photosintime.co.uk. Author of Family Photographs and How to Date Them (Countryside Books, 2008) and Getting the most out of Family Pictures (Society of Genealogists, 2010 forthcoming).