house numbers on farms in census records

[pergamond]

Just wondering if anyone knows about the numbering system used by census collectors. If two farming families in a rural area near Newry had consecutive house numbers on their census form for 1901, and in 1911 had different numbers but still consecutive, are these numbers just a convention for census purposes?

I'm trying to work out if families lived in adjacent farms, or across the road from each other.

[hallmark]

Nope... the numbers are a count on properties done, Form 5 is the 5th house enumerated, Form 6 the 6th, if there are 8 houses in town land he needed 8 forms.

[Elwyn Soutter]

I’d suggest you locate the farms in the revaluation records.

http://www.proni.gov.uk/index/search_the_archives/val12b.htm

In most cases you can then use the plot numbers there to find the exact location on the maps on the Griffiths Valuation site.

[pergamond]

Thank you both for your replies.

Elwyn, that's the first time I've actually seen the farms on a map. And they ran into each other, so that's interesting. Adjacent. I hadn't worked out how to use the map properly before, to superimpose the old map onto the current one, and now I can. Amazing technology.

And another supposed relative was a very short horse ride away on his farm.

Fantastic. Thanks.

[hallmark]

Lucky they had a short horse so!!

[Thornwood]

I asked the same question a few months ago when trying to find out the occupants of a certain house in a village, no road name and no number. The replies I received were that the enumerator could collect the information in any order he wanted and record it in the same manner. The information would also not be collected in the same order on each census. This made it very difficult even when some people stayed put. There were also infil houses built and others demolished. I found the best way was to know the plot and find it on Tithe maps or other Maps needed for tax collection. This gave me accurate information and I could see who owned and who was occupying each plot of land/house.