Genealogy Chat

Well it happened later too, my grandparents took the back two rooms of one property as late as 1931 when they married.

My great-aunt Eliza Ellen Broad is on the 1881 census as head of the household - and she was a kitchen maid! This was an address in Wimpole Street, London and the only other occupant of the house was another maid. She's also mistranscribed as 'Wadd' She disappears completely after that. nell

Thanks very much for the input folks, it was bothering me, but the more I think about it, the more it seems likely that they were in multiple occupancy of the house. Cheers

Hi Shani, My grandad was a lodger in a house in the early 1920's. He lived there with his wife - but the other inhabitants, another married couple (I don't think they owned the house - were just the 'main tenants) were away a lot. So if they were elsewhere census night, my granadad, though a lodger would have been 'Head of house' at the time. maggie

I think in houses with multiple occupancy it sometimes has the head of the household as lodger. Perhaps they only lived in one room? A lodger is different from a boarder who ate with the main family. A lodger was 'self catering' Anne

I'd guess the head of the household was absent from the house on census night leaving the lodger and family to fill in the form

could it be they are renting the property

Can anyone tell me why sometimes on a census it records the head of the house as the lodger (and not head), even though his spouse is named as his wife? And no, no other head at the house either.