1841 York census question, please

[Lisa in California]

A few years ago, I received wonderful help (and an amazing amount of information!) while researching ancestors who lived in York during the mid-1800's.  I don't believe there is anything else that can be found out about this family and I am very happy with the information that was uncovered.   

I currently have access to English census records and since I have a few minutes tonight, I thought I would have a look around.  I noticed my ancestors are written at the bottom of one page and at the top of the next page is a 70 year old woman who appears to not be living with anyone else.  I don't believe she is connected to our family, but it was several years ago that we were researching, so I don't remember if she was ever mentioned.

I may be mistaken, but it appears that after each family, two slash marks are written (sideways) under the final name in the household.  [I do see the column for "Houses - Inhabited" and the slash marks are above each entry for Inhabited.]  If this is how this particular census taker indicated people were living in the same house, then there is a chance that she was living with my ancestors.  The column for "Houses" was left blank for her name (it was filled in for other "families" on the page).

Would anyone know, please, if the slash marks were an indication of households?   Thank you for reading this rather confusing, lengthy post.  Lisa

[KGarrad]

A double slash (\\)  indicates a new dwelling.
A single slash (\) indicates a new household (=family group?) within a multi-occupancy dwelling.

[Lisa in California]

Thank you for the information, KGarrad.

There is a single slash after the last child's name on page 10 and a double slash after the 70 year old's name at the top of page 11.  Interesting.  I will have to comb through the previous findings, to see if she was mentioned.  If not, it would be interesting to see who she was - of course tonight I haven't yet found her after 1841 (nor before).   

Thank you, KGarrad.

[KGarrad]

One of the problems with the 1841 census is the lack of relationships!

The 70 year old may simply have been a lodger?
In fact, probably more likely - if she was family, she would have been included with the rest of the family, and no "\" between them?

[JenB]

The enumerators were instructed to
 
Insert, without distinction or omission, every living person who abode or slept in each house. Leave no blank spaces between the names, but enter each immediately after the one preceding it, so that each page may contain 25. Set down one after the other those who have the same surname, beginning with the heads of the family, and put no others between them.

and

At the end of the names of each family draw a line thus / as in the Example. At the end of the names of the inmates in each house draw a double line thus //

http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~framland/census/1841directions.htm

[Lisa in California]

True about the slash mark between the child and the woman.  I will have to dig through all of my notes to see if she was mentioned previously.

Thank you again.  This family had quite an interesting tale (some true, some not so true), so finding little bits always fascinates me.

Good night for now.

PS  Thank you, JenB for the added information.  I'm used to Canadian census returns, so learning about English returns is quite interesting.