Below you can see the 1911 census returns for Herbert Henry Asquith, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1908 to 1916. The forms were filled in by Maurice Bonham Carter (Asquith’s private secretary and future husband of his daughter Violet).

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You can also see that the line recording Violet Asquith is written in completely different handwriting to the rest. This could suggest that Violet filled in her own name herself, inferring that she was in the same room as Maurice when he completed the household’s schedule. Maurice and Violet married in 1915 and the census seems to suggest that the pair were already close to one another in 1911. Violet and Maurice are the grandparents of actress Helena Bonham Carter.

This is a great example of how the 1911 householder forms can provide information or suggestions that would have been lost in the Enumerator’s summary pages. The householder forms for the 1841-1901 censuses were all destroyed which means that the 1911 census is the only census with this benefit available at the moment, making it very special.

We’ve had a look at actor Hugh Jackman’s ancestors’ 1911 census return. The results are from his paternal Bellas and Furniss lines.

The 1911 census return shows Hugh’s paternal grandmother, Glory Margaret Bellas, under one month old and living in a rather busy household - 13 people (nine of whom were adults) living in a nine-roomed house!

Glory was living with her parents (Hugh’s paternal great-grandparents), Nicholas Isidor Bellas and Dora Bellas nee Furniss, and her grandparents (Hugh’s paternal great-great-grandparents), Charles and Margaret Furniss.

The extended family had been born in various places around north England and the midlands; Glory and her mother had both been born in Manchester, Charles Furniss in Derby and Margaret Furniss in Bolton, Lancashire. However, Glory’s father was Greek and had been born in Constantinople. We can see that Nicholas had certainly lived in Constantinople for some of his earlier life as his eldest two children had also been born there. These children are probably from another marriage as Nicholas and Dora had only been married for six years and the ‘number of children born alive to the marriage’ has been listed as two.

In 1911, Charles Furniss (aged 85) recorded himself as being retired on a pension, having worked for the railway. Nicholas Bellas was working as an accountant for a company manufacturing cigarettes.